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I . L 


SHE GRIPPED HER KNEES WITH ALL HER MIGHT AGAINST HIS 

SHAGGY SIDES 


Page 41 


KEINETH 

BY 

JANE ABBOTT 


WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
HARRIET ROOSEVELT RICHARDS 



PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 

B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 



PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS 
PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A. 


NOV 21 1918 





TO 

ALL THE LITTLE GIRLS I KNOW 
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 




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CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Keineth's World Changes ii 

II. Keineth Decides 20 

III. Overlook 33 

IV. Keineth Writes to Her Father 45 

V. Pilot Comes to Overlook 53 

VI. The Music the Fairies Put in Her Fingers.. 63 

VII. Alice Runs Away 72 

VHI. A Page from History 81 

IX. The Captive Maiden 90 

X. Pilot in Disgrace 100 

XL Pilot Wins a Home 107 

XII. A Letter from Daddy 116 

XIII. Camping 125 

XIV. The Tennis Tournament 135 

XV. Not on the Program 144 

XVI. Aunt Josephine 153 

XVII. School Days 163 

XVIII. Christmas 175 

XIX. When the Christmas Spirit Worked Overtime. 185 

XX. Shadows 196 

XXI. Pilot Goes Away 205 

XXII. Keineth's Gift 214 

XXIII. Surprises 226 

XXIV. Mr. President 233 

XXV. The Castle of Dreams. 242 







ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

She Gripped Her Knees with All Her Might Against His 
Shaggy Sides Frontispiece 

Her Body Lifted Slowly — the Water Splashed About Her. . 112 


“Why You’re Just a Kid,” He Answered Impudently 172 

“So This is the Little Soldier Girl!” 238 



KEINETH 


CHAPTER I 

KEINETH^S WORLD CHANGES 

Keineth Randolph’s world seemed suddenly 
to be turning upside down! 

For the past three days there had been no les- 
sons. Keineth had lessons instead of going to 
school. She had them sometimes with Madame 
Henri, or Tante ” as she called her, and sometimes 
with her father. If the sun was very inviting in 
the morning, lessons would wait until afternoon; or, 
if, sitting straight and still in the big room her 
father called his study, Keineth found it impossible 
to think of the book before her, Tante would say 
in her prim voice: 

Dreaming, cherie? ” and add, the books will 
wait ! ” 

Or, if father was hearing the lessons, he would 
toss aside the book and beckon to Keineth to sit on 
his knee. Then he would tell a story. It would 


KEINETH 


be, perhaps, something about India or they would 
travel together through Norway; or it would be 
Custer’s fight with the Indians or the wanderings 
of the Acadians through the English Colonies in 
America, as portrayed in Longfellow’s Evangeline. 

But for three days Keineth had had neither les- 
sons nor stories — she had not even wanted to go 
out into the park to walk. For her dear Xante, 
with a very sad face, was packing her trunks and 
boxes, and Daddy had gone out of town. 

To-morrow the little woman was going to sail 
on a Norwegian boat for Europe. The trip seemed 
to Keineth to be particularly unusual because Xante 
and Daddy had talked so much about it and Xante 
had waited until Daddy had gotten her some papers 
which would take her safely into Europe. So much 
talk and the important papers made it seem as though 
she was going very far away. Perhaps she did not 
expect to come back to America — she stopped so 
often in her work to kiss Keineth ! 

Keineth could not remember her own mother, 
she had died when Keineth was three years old; 
and as far back as she could remember Xante had 
always taken care of her. These three, the golden- 


12 


KEINETH’S WORLD CHANGES 

haired, delicate child, the serious-faced Belgian 
gentlewoman, who had given up a position in one of 
New York’s schools to go into John Randolph’s 
household, and the father himself, living for his 
work and his daughter, led what might seem to 
others a very strange life. The man had kept his 
home in the old brick 'house on Washington Square 
in lower New York even after the other houses in 
the square around it gradually changed from pleas- 
ant, neat homes to shabby boarding-houses or room- 
ing houses with broken windows and railless steps; 
to dusty lofts; to cellars where Jews kept and sorted 
over their filthy rags; to dingy attic spaces where 
artists made their studios, turning queer, dilapidated 
comers into what they called their homes. The 
third story of the Randolph house had been let for 
“ light housekeeping apartments ” ; Keineth herself 
had helped tack the little black and gilt sign at the 
door. The tenants used the side door that let into 
the brick-paved alley. Keineth had always felt a 
great pride in their home — it was always neatly 
painted, their steps shone, and there were no papers 
collected behind their iron gratings. Even across 
the park she could see the bright geraniums blooming 
13 


KEINETH 


in the windows under Madame Henri’s loving care. 

Keineth and Tante had two big sleeping rooms 
facing the square and Daddy had a smaller room in 
the back. Dora, the colored maid who kept the 
house in order and cooked breakfast and lunch, went 
away at night. The rooms were very large, with 
high ceilings. The windows were long and narrow 
and hung with heavy, dusty curtains. The furni- 
ture was very old and very dull and dark, but 
Keineth loved the great chairs into which she could 
curl herself and read for hours at a time. 

There were few children in the square for her 
to play with. Next door was an Italian family with 
eight girls and boys, and Keineth sometimes joined 
them in the park. Their father kept a fruit stall in 
the basement on one of the streets running off from 
the square. Francesca, one of the girls, sang very 
sweetly, often standing on the corner of the square 
and singing Italian folk-songs until she had gathered 
quite a crowd around her and had collected consider- 
able money. Keineth loved to listen to her. But 
Daddy had asked Keineth never to go alone outside 
of the square nor out of sight of the windows of 
14 


KEINETH’S WORLD CHANGES 


their own home, and Keineth, all her life, had always 
wanted to do exactly as her father asked her. 

The evenings to Keineth were the happiest, for, 
after his work was finished, Daddy always took her 
out somewhere for dinner. Sometimes they would 
go into queer, small places; rooms lighted by gas- 
jets, where they ate on bare tables from off thick 
white plates. She would sit very quietly listening 
while her father talked to the people he met. It 
seemed to her that her father knew everybody. 
Other times they would go up town on the bus, 
Keineth clinging tightly to her father’s hand all the 
way, and they would find a corner in a brightly 
lighted hotel dining-room, where the silver and glass 
sparkled before Keineth’s eyes, where an orchestra, 
hidden behind big palms, played wonderful music 
as they ate, where the air was sweet with the 
fragrance of flowers like Joe Massey’s stall on the 
square, and where all the women were pretty and 
wore soft furs over shimmering dresses of lovely 
colors. Sometimes Tante went with them, looking 
very prim in her tailor-made suit of gray woolen 
cloth and her small gray hat. On these picnic din- 
ners, as Daddy called them. Daddy was always in 
IS 


KEINETH 


rollicking spirits, keeping up such a torrent of non- 
sense that Keineth was often quite exhausted from 
laughing. Then, when they were back in the old 
house. Daddy would pull his big chair close to the 
lamp, Tante would take her knitting from the basket 
in which it was always neatly laid, and Keineth 
would sit down at the piano to play for her father 
“ what the fairies put in her fingers.” This had 
been a little game between them for a long time — 
ever since her music lessons with Madame Henri 
had begun. 

Now — ^as the child sat balanced on the edge of 
an old rocker watching Tante tenderly and carefully 
placing her books into a heavy box — ^she felt that 
this beloved order of things was changing before 
her eyes. For, with Tante gone, who was to take 
care of her? And heavy on the child’s heart lay the 
fear that it might be Aunt Josephine. 

Aunt Josephine was her very own aunt, her 
father’s sister, and lived in a very pretentious home 
at the other end of the city, overlooking the Hudson 
River. At a very early age Keineth had guessed 
that Aimt Josephine did not approve of the way her 
Daddy lived ; of the tenants on the third floor ; of the 

i6 


KEINETH’S WORLD CHANGES 


sign at the door; of Xante and the happy-go-lucky 
lessons; and most of all, her intimacy with the 
Italian children. Twice a year Keineth and her 
Daddy spent a Sunday with Aunt Josephine, and 
Keineth could always tell by the way Daddy clasped 
her hand and ran down the steps that he was very 
glad when the day was over and they could go 
home. However, Aunt Josephine was pretty and 
wore lovely clothes like the women in the big hotels 
uptown and was really fond of Daddy, so that Kein- 
eth loved her — but she did not want to live with her ! 

“ Why do you go away from us ? ” Keineth asked 
Madame Henri for the hundredth time. 

The little woman dropped a book to kiss the 
child — also for the hundredth time. 

“ I have an old mother, and a sister, and six 
nephews and nieces over there — they need me now, 
more than you do, cherie ! ” 

Keineth knew that she was very unhappy and 
refrained from asking her more questions. Daddy 
had read to her of the suffering in Europe as a result 
of the great war, but it seemed hard to picture prim 
Xante in the midst of it — perhaps working in the 
fields and factories, as Daddy said some of the 
2 17 


KEINETH 


women and children were doing. Tante had read 
them parts of a letter telling of the wounding of 
her sister’s husband at the battle front and of his 
death in an English hospital, but that had seemed 
so very far away that Keineth had not thought much 
about it. Now it seemed nearer as she pictured the 
six little nephews and nieces, the poor old grand- 
mother — perhaps all hungry and homeless ! Keineth 
suddenly thought how good it was of Tante to leave 
their comfortable home and their jolly dinners and 
Dora’s steaming pancakes to go back to Belgium to 
help! 

Then — ^as if the whole day was not queer and 
different enough, Keineth suddenly heard her 
father’s quick step on the stairway. He had said 
he would not be home until that night ! She sprang 
to the door in time to rush into his arms as he came 
down the hallway. He kissed her, on her nose and 
eyes, as was his way, but when he lifted his face 
Keineth saw that it was very serious, which was 
not at all like Daddy. 

“ Run out in the park for a little while, dear. I 
must talk to Madame Henri ! ” 

The sun was shining very brightly on the pave- 

i8 


KEINETH’S WORLD CHANGES 

ments of the streets. The little leaves on the trees 
were quivering with new life and the birds were 
chirping loudly and busily in the branches, fussing 
over their housekeeping. But Keineth’s heart was 
too heavy to respond! She walked around and 
around the square, staring miserably at the people 
who passed her and always keeping in sight of the 
long windows where the pink geraniums shone in 
the spring simlight. 

Suddenly her heart dropped to her very toes and 
she had a great deal of trouble keeping the tears 
back from her eyes, for a very bright yellow motor 
car had stopped at their door, and Keineth knew 
that it was Aunt Josephine! 


CHAPTER II 
KEINETH DECIDES 

Keineth waited what seemed to her hours ; then 
retraced her steps to the house and walked very 
quietly into the hall. Daddy heard the door close 
behind her and called to her from the study. He 
was sitting at his desk, tapping the pad before him 
with the point of a pencil. Aunt Josephine sat on 
the old horse-hair sofa, looking very excited, and 
Tante, a pile of books still clasped in her arm and a 
smudge of dust across her straight features, stood 
near the window. 

I think it's high time you used a little sense 
in the way you bring up that child, John. You'll 
ruin her ! " 

Keineth's father smiled across at Keineth as 
much as to say : Never mind, dear,” but he listened 
gravely as his sister went on : 

I think it's the best thing that could happen— 
Madame Henri going away and you called on this 
trip ” 


20 


KEINETH DECIDES 


“Wait a moment, Josephine; Keineth does not 
know yet ” 

“ Daddy ! ” cried the child, running to him. 

“Just a moment, dear,” he whispered, as he 
drew her between his knees and laid his cheek against 
her hair. 

Aunt Josephine looked very much in earnest. 
Keineth could not remember a time when she had 
seemed more concerned over hers and Daddy’s 
welfare! 

“ Kow I can take Keineth with me until July. 
Then when I go on that yachting cruise she can go 
to some camp in the mountains — there are ever so 
many good ones. And next fall I can put her into 
a school. She’s too old to go on living as you are 
living.” 

Now the world had turned upside down I 
Keineth pressed suddenly close to her father. He 
tightened the clasp of her arm. 

“ Wait a moment, sister. We have two or three 
days to talk this over. I must get Madame Henri 
safely started and then Keineth and I will make our 
plans.” As he said this he squeezed the child’s hand. 
“ You’re awfully good to offer to take my little girl 


21 


KEINETH 


and I know you’d try your best to make her happy.” 
He stepped toward the door. Aunt Josephine ^ose, 
too. 

“ Well, you’d better follow my advice,” she said 
crisply. She almost always concluded their inter- 
views in this manner when they had to do with 
Daddy’s household. This time she stopped on her 
way to the door to place her hands on Keineth’s 
shoulders and let her eyes sweep Keineth’s little face. 

“ I’d make an up-to-date child of her, John. 
She’s got her mother’s eyes but the Randolph fea- 
tures. With a little grooming she’d make a beauty. 
And the first thing I’d do would be to put a decent 
frock on her! ” 

Keineth knew that Aunt Josephine meant to be 
kind but, hurt at her criticism, she drew away from 
her aunt’s clasp. As her aunt and father went 
out she looked down wonderingly at the simple blue 
serge she wore. Tante had always had her dresses 
made at a little shop on lower Fifth Avenue and 
Keineth had always thought them very nice. 

Madame Henri, muttering to herself, went out 
of the room. Keineth stood very still until her 
father came back. He shut the door and went to 


22 


KEINETH DECIDES 

his desk. She ran to him and hid her face on his 
shoulder. 

“ Daddy — are you — going away? ” 

“ Yes, child — I must.” 

“ For all summer? For all winter? ” 

“ Yes, dear. I think it may be a year.” 

“ Daddy ” began Keineth, then stopped 

short to hide her face. Father must not see her cry 1 
“ I’ll make a little picture for you, dear. This 
country of ours is like a great big house. It’s like 
all the homes all over the United States put into one. 
And it must be tended just as we’d tend our own 
little home — it must be kept in repair. It must be 
kept clean and have pretty spots, just like Madame 
Henri’s geraniums! And it must be guarded, too, 
from those who would break in and steal what be- 
longs in the home — or tear it down and make a ruin 
of it! And it must know its neighbors and work 
with them to keep eveiything peaceful and tidy about 
the whole street of nations! Don’t you remember 
how I had to argue with Signora Ferocci to make 
her clean up her back alley ? ” 

They both laughed together over the recollection 
23 


KEINETH 


of their efforts to persuade their next-door neighbor 
of the joys of cleanliness! 

“ Every person, big and small, should do his 
part toward the home-keeping of this big land of 
ours. And I have been asked to do a service. Sol- 
diers can’t do it all, my dear — only a very small 
part of it! There are a great many others — ^men 
like myself — who are going out over the world to 
work for the Stars and Stripes. And when I have 
been asked to go on a mission for our country that 
is very important, even though it takes me very 
far and keeps me away a very long time, I am sure 
my loyal little American girl will be the first to bid 
me go ! ” 

Keineth’s eyes were quite dry now and were 
very bright. She sat up very straight. She had 
entirely forgotten herself. 

“Will you wear a uniform. Daddy?” 

“ Oh, dear me, no — my work is not of that sort. 
In fact, I must go about in the quietest manner pos- 
sible. I cannot even tell my little girl where I am 
going.” 

“ You mean it’s a secret? ” the child cried. 

“ Yes, until I return. I must ask you to tell no 


24 


KEINETH DECIDES 


one that I have gone for the government. We may 
fail — the newspapers must not know yet. Everyone 
must think I am simply travelling.” 

Keineth was silent and p^erplexed. It did not 
occur to her to ask her father why she could not go 
with him. He had often gone away before and she 
had always stayed in the old house with Tante. But 
it had never been for a whole year! 

Suddenly she cried out ; “ I’ll be very brave, but — 
oh, Daddy ! ” 

He laughed, although he held her very close. 

“ Do you think, my dear, I would go away until 
I felt very certain that you were going to be happy ? 
I’m not sure how well you’d like it at Aunt Joseph- 
ine’s — it would be very different. Still — ^you’d have 
that French maid of hers for a nurse and go out 
with her and Fido for his walk and ride in the 
yellow motor and have all kinds of frilled dresses 

and feathered hats ” He was imitating Aunt 

Josephine’s voice in a very funny manner that made 
Keineth laugh. 

Keineth thought very quickly of all the things 
she loved to do that she knew Aunt Josephine would 
not allow her to do, but she did not want to speak 
25 


KEINETH 


of them, for it might make her Daddy unhappy. Her 
father went on, more seriously: 

“ But I have another plan. I will tell you about 
it and you may choose between that and Aunt 
Josephine’s.” (Keineth suddenly felt very grown 
up.) “ Coming up from Washington I ran into Mr. 
William Lee, an old friend of mine — a man I knew 
in college. I used to think the world of him. I 
hadn’t seen him for fifteen years ! He lives in the 
western part of the state. I knew Mrs. Lee, too, — 
she was a friend of your mother’s and they were 
very fond of one another. We talked for a long 
time over old times. He showed me kodak pictures 
of his children — ^he has four. Do you know what I 
thought when I looked at them ? ” 

“What, Daddy?” 

“ That I was cheating my little girl out of a great 
deal that every child has a right to — the pure joy of 
living. When I looked at those youngsters of his — 
husky, bare-armed, round-cheeked children, I knew 
they were getting a lot of happiness you’d never know 
in this little corner of ours — the kind of happiness 
you can only have when you are young.” 

26 


KEINETH DECIDES 


Keineth was puzzled. “ What do you mean, 
Daddy?” 

“ Oh, running, jumping, swimming — tennis — 
baseball ! Why, the knowing other children well — 
even the quarrelling,” he stopped, frowning. “ I had 
it all when I was little and here I am cheating you. 
Aunt Josephine is right when she says I’m not fair 
to you — ^but I don’t think you’d get it even with 
her!” 

“ But I don’t know anything about all those 
things. Daddy.” 

“ That’s just it! You can learn, though. I told 
Mr. Lee that I had to go away, and about you, and 
he asked me if I wouldn’t let you go to them for 
the year. They have a summer home on the shore 
of Lake Erie and almost live out-of-doors. I said 
no at first — it seemed too much to ask of them, but 
he persisted and wouldn’t take no for an answer. 
He is coming here to-night to talk it over. I think 
now — it might be the thing to do. Mrs. Lee loved 
your mother very, very dearly, and I know would 
be very good to you.” 

He gently lifted her down from off his knee, 
which meant that he had work to do and that Keineth 


27 


KEINETH 


must leave the room. She sought out Tante upstairs. 
The good woman had closed her last box and was 
dressed ready to start on her long trip, although 
the boat would not leave until the next day. She 
was knitting, so Keineth took a book and sat near 
the window pretending to read. Her eyes wandered 
off the page and her poor little mind was busy at 
work trying to decide which she would dislike the 
least — living with Aunt Josephine and walking with 
Fido and the French maid and going to a strange 
camp and a strange school, or going off to a strange 
place and living among strange people and playing 
strange games ! She wanted dreadfully to cry, but 
Tante was so quiet and so miserable, and Daddy was 
so serious that she could not add in any way to what 
seemed to trouble them. 

So — although Francesca, the little Italian singer, 
was skipping rope on the pavement below the win- 
dow, and a robin was calling lustily to its mate in a 
nearby horse-chestnut tree, and a vender was ped- 
dling his wares down the street in a voice that 
sounded like a slow-pealing bell, poor Keineth felt 
as if she could never be really happy again! 

28 


KEINETH DECIDES 


That night Daddy and Keineth went uptown for 
dinner. In one of the hotels they met Mr. Lee. 
Keineth’s heart was pounding with dread beneath 
her neat serge dress and she was almost afraid to 
look at the man. But when he took her hand in 
his and spoke in a kindly voice, she ventured a timid 
glance and saw a big man, taller and heavier than 
her father, with a jolly smile and eyes that laughed 
from under their shaggy eyebrows. Then she felt 
that she liked him — and the more because he had 
such an affectionate way of laying his hand on her 
father’s shoulder. 

While they talked together Mr. Lee watched her 
very closely. Once he said to her father: 

“ My wife will love the little girl — she is so like 
her mother ! ” There had been a long silence then, 
and Keineth had seen the look in her father’s eyes 
that meant his thoughts were back in the past. Later 
Mr. Lee had added : “ Why, John — you won’t know 
the child after a summer with us — ^those cheeks will 
all be roses and her little body plump. And how 
the kiddies will love her ! ” 

Keineth had been shown the kodak pictures and 
had studied them closely. The veiy big girl was 
29 


KEINETH 


Barbara, who was seventeen. The boy was Billy, 
aged fourteen. Peggy was Keineth’s age — twelve, 
and the little one, Alice, was eight. They all wore 
middy blouses in the picture and Peggy and Alice 
were barefooted. Keineth thought, as she looked 
at their laughing faces, that they were very unlike 
any children she had ever seen anywhere. 

They took Mr. Lee to their home. Keineth 
played on the piano for them — not her own fairy 
things, but a simple little piece she had learned 
with much precision from Madame Henri. Then 
she and Tante went upstairs. Daddy had whispered 
to her as she kissed him good-night : 

“You must decide yourself, dear!” 

Keineth had thought that when she was quite 
alone in her bedroom' she would cry, for then it 
would disturb no one and she really had a great 
deal to cry about. But Madame Henri lingered a 
long time by her bed, standing close to it with a very 
white face. Finally she knelt beside it and laid her 
cheek against Keineth’s hands. Keineth felt hot 
tears which surprised her, for she did not know 
that Tante knew how to cry. Then Tante began to 
pray — ^ queer sort of prayer, all broken: 

30 


KEINETH DECIDES 


“ Oh, God, oh, God, keep this little girl safe 
from the things that hurt ! Keep all the little ones ! 
Why should they suffer ? Where is your mercy ? ” 
Then she said a great deal in French so fast that 
Keineth could not understand her and finally, sob- 
bing violently, she rushed out of the room, leaving 
Keineth very disturbed. She thought that poor 
Tante must love her very much and she supposed 
the prayer was for the little children in Europe 
who were starving, as well as for her — ^Keineth 
Randolph ! Madame Henri’s good heart so moved 
her that she jumped out of bed to kneel beside it 
and add what she had forgotten in her concern over 
herself ! 

“ God bless dear, dear Tante and keep her safe! ” 

Then, feeling very excited, Keineth went to sleep 
without crying and dreamed of rimning barefooted 
with Peggy through fields all white with daisies, 
while in the distance at a fence like the rail fences 
in pictures, stood Aunt Josephine’s awful French 
maid with Fido under her arm, screaming at her in 
French. 

So vivid seemed the dream that it awakened 
Keineth. She listened for a moment. She could 
31 


KEINETH 


hear the click of her father’s typewriter. She pressed 
the button that lighted her bed lamp, found her slip- 
pers and stole noiselessly downstairs. Never in her 
whole life had she disturbed her Daddy when he 
was writing, but now she did not even rap — she 
pushed the door open and ran to him. 

“ Daddy, Daddy ” she cried as though still 

pursued by the screaming French maid. “ Please — 
I’d rather go to the Lee’s ! ” 


CHAPTER III 


OVERLOOK 

“ The next station is Fairview, Keineth — watch 
out for the kiddies,” said Mr. Lee, rising from the 
car seat. 

Keineth had been sitting for a half hour with 
her nose flattened against the car window, not seeing 
at all the fields and farmhouses that flew past her, 
but trying to picture what Peggy would be like! 
Keineth was very excited and a little tired from 
the night in the sleeper ; she was fighting back the 
thought that she would not see Daddy for a long, 
long time. Daddy had gone with them to the station 
the night before,^ and had helped her undress in the 
queer little shelf he called a berth and had himself 
pulled the blankets close around her chin and kissed 
her again and again. 

“ Little soldier — right face,” he whispered — and 
Keineth knew that he meant she should be very 
brave over it all. Then he had hurried off the train, 
for the conductor was shouting : “All aboard ” 

3 33 


KEINETH 


and Keineth, peeping from under her curtain for a 
last look, had seen his tall figure go down the dimly- 
lighted platform. 

The engine whistled and slowed down. Keineth 
took up the new bag which had been Aunt Josephine’s 
present to her, and followed Mr. Lee to the door. 
Around the corner of his arm she saw a freckled- 
faced boy running close to the car step, and beyond 
him two little girls. 

The taller of the two must, of course, be Peggy! 
Keineth saw a bob-headed, slim child of about her 
own height, brown as a berry. 

Dad — Dad,” they cried, running forward as 
Mr. Lee stepped down from the train almost 
strangled in Billy’s hug. In their joy at seeing their 
father the girls did not notice Keineth, who stood 
shyly back, wishing the ground would open and 
swallow her up. 

But the ground under the station platform was 
unusually solid! In a moment Keineth felt three 
pairs of eyes upon her as Mr. Lee turned and said : 

Here is the little stranger I have brought with 

me.” 

Hello,” said Peggy, smiling. Alice smiled, 


34 


OVERLOOK 


too, but hung back a little, and Billy swept a critical 
glance over Keineth’s city-clad little figure. Mr. 
Lee, holding Alice’s hand in his, was walking toward 
an automobile in which sat the eldest daughter. 

“ Fm awfully glad you came,” began Peggy as 
the children followed. “ It’ll be such fun ! ” 

“Is this Keineth?” cried the girl in the auto- 
mobile, jumping out to greet her father. Keineth 
had pictured Barbara as quite a young lady — she 
had always thought seventeen very old — ‘but Barbara 
was dressed in a blue skirt and a middy blouse like 
Peggy’s and wore her hair in a long, thick braid. 
She had her father’s kind eyes and the friendliness 
of their glance warmed poor little Keineth’s home- 
sick soul. She gave the child a little pat on the 
shoulder. 

“ We’re just awfully glad you’re here,” she said, 
taking Keineth’s bag. Then, to her father : “We 
didn’t think Genevieve would run ! She’s been act- 
ing awful — ‘but we just made her crawl up here to 
meet you.” 

“ Genevieve’s the name of the automobile,” gig- 
gled Peggy as the smaller girls cuddled into the back 
35 


KEINETH 


seat. Billy rode on the running board and Barbara 
took the steering wheel. 

“ Mother’s fine,” Barbara was saying while, at 
the same time, Billy was pouring into his father’s 
ear a great deal of information concerning his wire- 
less. Peggy in breathless, excited words was 
pointing out to the bewildered Keineth the sights of 
Fairview. 

Genevieve, with many puffs and snorts and queer 
noises from under her bonnet, crawled gallantly 
along the smooth road, up a hill, turned in between 
two stone posts and stopped. Down the steps ran a 
woman who seemed to Keineth only a little older 
than Barbara, She kissed Mr. Lee, then, pushing 
the eager children aside, turned to Keineth. 

“ Here she is, mother,” called out Peggy, draw- 
ing Keineth forward. 

Mrs. Lee took Keineth in her arms and held her 
very close for a moment. When she released her she 
put her hand under Keineth’s chin to lift her face. 

“ It’s like seeing your mother again,” she laughed, 
although there was a queer little catch in her voice. 

“ You’ll be Pfeggy’s twin,” she added, starting 
up the steps. “ Bring in their bags, Billy. Barb — 
36 


OVERLOOK 


let’s give Dad a nice hot cup of coffee ! Peggy, you 
make Keineth perfectly at home.” 

Keineth took off her hat and coat. Very will- 
ingly Peggy took her in charge. 

“ I’ll show you the garden,” she said. 

“ Let’s go down to the beach ! ” cried Alice, 
following. 

“ Do you want to see my wireless set? ” invited 
Billy. 

“ Billy thinks that’s the only interesting thing 
about Overlook ! ” 

“ Wait a moment, children,” suggested Mrs. 
Lee to them, “ one thing at a time ! Keineth is tired, 
perhaps. Take her upstairs, Peggy, and let her slip 
on a blouse and your old serge bloomers — then go 
outside and play ! ” 

Overlook really wasn’t like a house at all — 
Keineth had never seen anything quite like it. There 
was one big living-room with a veranda running 
around it and with big doors opening from three 
sides upon the veranda so that the room itself was 
just like out-of-doors. One end of the veranda was 
enclosed in glass and used as a dining-room. Flowers 
in boxes were on the sills of the windows and over 
37 


KEINETH 


them the sun streamed through chintz-curtained 
windows. Upstairs were two rooms over the living- 
rooms, and opening from these were screened 
sleeping porches, with rows of little cots. Peggy 
explained that the rooms were used as dressing- 
rooms and that each one of the family had a little 
chest of drawers for their own clothes and that 
mother had brought the oak one in the corner cmt 
from town for Keineth’s use. 

“ But where do you sleep when it rains? ” cried 
Keineth. 

“ Oh, out there,” laughed Peggy ; “ you see, the 
roof slants down so far that it keeps out the rain. 
That’s your cot — between Barb’s and mine.” 

Keineth caught a glimpse of a great blue stretch 
of water glistening in the bright sunlight a quarter 
of a mile away. 

“ Oh — is that the lake? ” she exclaimed, eagerly. 

“ Yes^ — we’ll go down to the beach in a little 
while. Can you swim? Mother will teach you — 
she taught each one of us. I’m going to try for the 
life-saving medal this year ! We have sport contests 
at the club in August. Can you play tennis? ” 

38 


OVERLOOK 


Keineth said no. Peggy’s manner became just a 
little patronizing. “ Oh, it’s easy to learn, though 
it’ll take you quite awhile to serve a good ball, but 
you can practice with Alice. Can you play golf ? ” 
My Daddy can.” 

“ Well, you can walk around the links with Billy 
and me. Barbara plays a dandy game — she can beat 
Dad all to pieces. Let’s go down now and see the 
garden.” 

Beyond the neatly-kept lawn with its bricked 
walks bordered with nasturtium beds was the 
stretch of garden in which the children had their 
individual beds. Peggy explained tO' Keineth that 
Billy this year had planted his bed to radishes and 
onions; that she had put in her seed in a pattern of 
her own designing which, when she separated the 
weeds from the flowers would look like a splendid 
combination of a new moon and the Big Dipper. 
Barbara and Alice had planted asters and snap- 
dragon because mother liked them for the house. 
Back of the flower beds was a patch of young com, 
and behind that the vegetable garden which sup- 
plied the table. At one side of the garden was the 
39 


KEINETH 


barn where poor Genevieve was now resting her 
rickety bones, and next to that was a shed. 

Billy was busy at work repairing the door of the 
shed. As the girls came in sight he waved to them. 
They started on a run. 

Let’s give Ken a ride on Gypsy,” he called out. 
He dropped his hammer, disappeared in the barn 
and came out leading a shaggy pony. 

At the sound of the nickname carelessly bestowed 
upon her Keineth drew in her breath quickly. Right 
at that moment she wanted more than anything 
else in the world that these children should not think 
she was a bit different from them! Already her 
plain serge dress had been hung away and she was 
in a blouse and bloomers like Peggy’s! 

I don’t know,” began Peggy doubtfully. 

Oh, please, let me have a ride,” broke in Keineth 
in a voice she tried to make as careless as Billy’s 
own. 

We always ride Gypsy bareback — climb up 
here on these boxes ! ” 

Keineth stepped upon the boxes, Billy wheeled 
the pony around and Keineth bravely swung one leg 
over the pony’s back, taking the halter in her hand 
40 


OVERLOOK 

as she did so. Billy gave the pony a sound slap 
on the shoulder and off they flew ! 

Never in her life had Keineth been on a horse’s 
back, but she had caught the challenge in Billy’s 
laughing eyes and her soul flamed with daring. She 
clenched her teeth tightly and, because she was in 
mortal terror of slipping off from the pony, she 
gripped her knees with all her might against his 
shaggy sides. In a fimny little gallop — ^very like a 
rocking horse — he circled the house, while from the 
shed Billy and Peggy shouted to her encouragingly. 

Keineth’s first ride would have ended trium- 
phantly if she had not laid her hand ever so lightly 
on a certain spot in Gypsy’s neck ! For Gypsy, hav- 
ing reached an age when he was of no further use in 
their business, had been bought a year before from 
a circus company by Mr. Lee and taken to Overlook, 
and at the time of the purchase no one had explained 
to Mr. Lee that Gypsy’s training had included quietly 
throwing the clown from her back in a way which 
had always won screams of laughter from the spec- 
tators and that the little act came at the moment 
when the clown touched a certain spot on her neck ! 
All the young Lees had ridden Gypsy but had not 
41 


KEINETH 


happened to discover this little trick. But Keineth, 
just as she had safely passed the kitchen door and 
was galloping toward the shed, suddenly felt herself 
flying over Gypsy’s head ! Her fall was broken by a 
pile of sand which had been hauled up from the 
beach for the garden. Keineth was more startled 
than hurt, though she felt a little stunned and lay 
for a moment very still. 

“Oh, are you hurt?” cried Peggy, running 
quickly to her with Billy at her heels. 

“ Oh, I s’pose she’ll cry and bring mother out ! ” 
Keineth heard Billy say behind Peggy’s back. 

Keineth’s cheeks were very red. She stood up 
quickly and, though for a moment everything danced 
before her eyes, she managed to laugh and speak 
in a queer voice she scarcely recognized as her own. 

“ ’Course I’m not hurt ! A little fall like that ! ” 
she brushed the sand from her blouse. 

“ Peggy,” cried Billy, joyfully, “ she’s a real 
scout ! ” and Keineth knew then that she was one of 
them. 

Even Peggy’s tone was different. “ Let’s ask 
mother if we can’t go down to the beach before 
42 


OVERLOOK 


lunch ! ” she called out over her shoulder, starting 
houseward on a run. 

That night a very tired little girl crept into her 
cot between Barbara’s and Peggy’s. Alice was 
already asleep on the other side of Peggy. Barbara 
was still on the veranda talking with her mother 
and father. A soft land breeze, all sweet with garden 
smells, fanned their faces as the girls lay there. 
What a day it had been to Keineth — she had played 
in the sand, waded in the warm shallows of the lake, 
raced with Peggy and Alice through the fields all 
white with daisies and had gathered great bunches of 
the pretty flowers! She thought, as she lay there 
watching the little stars peeping under the edge of 
the roof, that she had never been so happy in her 
life! She loved Overlook and all the Lees — and 
Peggy, best of all. 

In whispers, reaching out from their cots to clasp 
hands, she and Peggy opened their hearts to one 
another. She told Peggy all about poor, nice Tante 
and about the old house and Francesca Ferocci and 
Aunt Josephine and Fido and the French maid, and 
the tenants on the third floor and her Daddy — who’d 
gone away on a secret. Peggy, very sleepily pictured 
43 


KEINETH 


what they’d do on the morrow and the day after 
and the day after that. Later, when Mrs. Lee went 
her rounds, as she always did, tucking a cover under 
each loved chin, she found Keineth’s fair curls very 
close to Peggy’s round bobbed head and their hands 
still clasping. 


CHAPTER IV 

KEINETH WRITES TO HER FATHER 

My dear, dear, dearest Daddy, 

I have decided to write down all my thoughts and 
send them to you just like the diry Tante used to keep 
in her brown book that had the lock on it, then she would 
lose the key and ring her hands and think Dinah had 
taken it, then she would find it under her burow cover 
where she had hidden it all the time. I am trying to be a 
good soldier. It was very hard at first, I could not keep 
myself from thinking all the time of you and Tante and 
our happy home where it must be all dark and dusty now 
like it was after we had been in the mountains with Aunt 
Josephine, only worse. I do love it here, but it is not a 
bit like anything I have ever seen at home or riding with 
Aunt Josephine. It is like a house and like we were liv- 
ing right out doors, for there are so many windows and we 
sleep in a big room just with a roof. I sleep right next 
to Peggy; we always talk before we go to sleep, which is 
lots of fun, only Peggy never listens until I finish. I say 
good-night to a big bright star becose I pretend that star 
is shining down where you are writing somewhere and 
maybe will tell you that your little girl is saying good- 
night. Way off toward the end of the sky there is a 
funny little star that is very hard to see, and I say good- 
night to that for Tante becose she is so far away, too. 

45 


KEINETH 


Barbara helped me find on the map where she had gone 
and Mr. Lee said poor thing. I do wish I knew if she was 
unhappy. 

We live downstairs in a great big room and eat there 
and everything, it seems just as if flowers grew right in it, 
for there are boxes of them at the windows and on the 
veranda, and Aunt Nellie puts big bunches of them all 
around the room and Peggy has a bird that lives in a 
white cage in the window and sings all the time, I guess 
becose the sun shines on him. The furniture is not gold 
at all like Aunt Josephine’s and it is not big like we have 
at home and there are only one or two rugs and the floor 
shines; Aunt Nellie does not fuss when we children move 
things around and we have lots of fun. There is a big 
fireplace made of rocks Billy says they pulled up from the 
beach. One time Mr. Lee lighted some big logs in it and 
we all sat round and told terrible storys of pirates and 
things we made up most, but Billy could think of the 
worst and Mr. Lee and Aunt Nellie sat with us and told 
some just like they were children, too. Sometimes Aunt 
Nellie seems just like a girl, she is so jolly, she is not a 
bit like Aunt Josephine, though I am sure Aunt Josephine 
is a very nice lady and I don’t mean that I don’t love her, 
only Aunt Nellie kisses me as if she likjed too and does not 
just peck my cheek. Last week she brought me home some 
lovly middy bloses like Peggy wears, and I play in 
bloomers all day and put on a white skirt for supper; 
Mr. Lee says Peggy and I look like twins. Auntie brought 
me a bathing suit, too, and a tennis raket Peggy says is 

46 


KEINETH WRITES TO HER FATHER 


better than hers. She folded away all my hair ribbons; 
she said we would not bother with them in the country. 
Barbara wears middy bloses, too, but she cannot wear' 
bloomers becose she is too old though she does not look) 
old or grownup. She is going away to school in the fall\ 
and Auntie and she are getting her close ready. Alice 
is just a little girl and is some fun, although she crys real 
often Peggy says she is spoiled. Auntie says she will out- 
grow that and that Peggy cryed just as much when she 
was like Alice is. I wish I could see you becose I 
would like to ask you many questions about when I was a 
little girl. I am sure if I had a little sister like Alice I 
would try and be more polite than Peggy is, but Peggy 
says that families are all like that. Billy is awful. I do 
not think I like him very much. He says the queerest 
words and acts rude and rough. Tante would not like his 
manners at all. I am ashamed becose I do not like him 
becose Auntie loves him dearly and she only laughs when 
I think she will punish him; he does not read books and 
his English is bad like Dinah's and he teses Peggy and 
Alice and eats very fast and talks with food in his mouth. 
I shall try to like him. 

There are no sidewalks at Mr. Lee's house; they have 
pebble paths with flowers here instead of sidewalks and 
a dirt road; it is just like the real country and there are 
daisies in the fields, Peggy says they do not call them' 
lots. The grass is greener than in the Square at home. 
All the children have gardens. Peggy says I may have 
half of her's and I have a hoe and rake all my own. Billy 

47 


KEINETH 


is going to sell his vegertables becose he wants to buy a 
new sending set for his wireless. I like the pony, though 
I do not like to ride it after the first time when I fell off, 
though it did not hurt me at all and I was not even 
frightened. 

To-morrow we are going into the lake for a swim, 
although I will have to learn, but Peggy says that it is 
easy only I must stay away from Billy or he will duck me. 
I shall try and not be afraid becose I am sure you 
would be ashamed of me if I acted frightened. It will be 
fun to put on my new bathing suit. Auntie taught Barbara 
and Peggy to swim. Peggy is going to try and win the 
medal this year, and Barbara says she will becose she swims 
so well. 

I will try and remember to write to Aunt Josephine 
like I promised I would becose she is my aunt, but I 
will not know what to tell her becose there is not any- 
thing in Overlook that is like what she has and she might 
not like what I tell her and scold us. I am sure she 
would be angry if I told her that once a week Auntie lets 
us girls cook the supper and we cook just what we please 
and surprise them, and Barbara puts down on a paper 
everything we use and how much it costs, and after sup- 
per she gives it to Mr. Lee and we talk about it. To- 
morrow is our night. Oh I wish you were here, Daddy, it 
is such fun only it is very lonely without a father. I try 
to do all the things that Peggy does, though I can’t do 
them as well, but I will tell you in this diry how I im- 
prove as I intend to do. I have not any book to keep my 

48 


KEINETH .WRITES TO HER FATHER 


thoughts in, but I will send them to you whenever I write 
them. Please excuse my spelling for I am sure no one 
should have to look in a dickshunary when they are writ- 
ing thoughts. Xante never did. I love you and I am 
sending a million kisses with this letter. 

Your little soldier daugghter, 

Keineth Randolph. 

sK * * Jk * 

Dear Mr. President of the United States: 

Please send the letter I put in the envelope to my 
father. He is working for the Stars and Stripes some- 
where, he said he could not tell me where becose it was 
a secret. He is a soldier, but he is one of those that do 
not wear any uniform. I am sure you will know where he 
is becose you are the President of our Country. I would 
like to know, too, very much where he is becose it is 
lonesome without him, for my father is the only family I 
have. But my father said I must be a little soldier. You 
know he just means me to do my duty and to like Over- 
look and everybody and to do what they do, but it makes 
me feel better to pretend that I am a soldier like he is 
and like all your soldiers. Thank you if you send my 
letter to my father and much love. 

Yours truly, 

Keineth Randolph. 

P. S. — Aunt Josephine says postscripts are not good 
form, but I forgot to say that my father’s name is John 
Randolph, of Washington Square, New York. 

4 49 


KEINETH 


This was the letter over which Keineth, curled 
in a chair at the writing-desk, had labored for a long 
time, finishing it at last to her satisfaction. Slipping 
it into an envelope with the letter she had written to 
her father she sealed it hastily, anxious to have it 
addressed and mailed before Peggy and Billy re- 
turned from the golf club. 

Over on the window seat Barbara sat sewing, 
watching Keineth with amused eyes; for Keineth 
had been writing with the dictionary open at her 
elbow and had stopped very often to consult it as to 
the spelling of a word. 

“ Very different from Peggy,” thought Barbara. 

Aware after a little that Keineth’s face wore a 
perplexed frown, she said to her: 

“ Can I help you, Ken? ” 

“If you’ll just tell me how to address a letter to 
the President, please.” 

“ The President! What President? ” 

“ The President of the United States.” 

“ Good gracious ” Barbara, dropping her 

sewing, stared at Keineth in amazement. “ I thought 
— no wonder you’re using a dictionary I I am sure 
I would, too! But ” 


so 


KEINETH WRITES TO HER FATHER 


Keineth broke in hastily. “ You see I have been 
writing a sort of diary, about everything I think and 
do, to send to my father, but I don’t know where he 
is because he has gone away on a mission for our 
country and it has to be kept a secret, but I 

thought ” Her voice broke a little and she held 

the letter tightly in her hands. 

Barbara, feeling how close the tears were to 
Keineth’s bright eyes, crossed quickly to her side. 

“ Oh, I see ! ” she said briskly. “ What a splen- 
did idea! Of course the President will know where 
he is and will send it to him. Let me think — we 
learned all that in school and had to address make- 

believe letters to him ” Taking a sheet of paper 

she wrote in large letters: 

Honorable Woodrow Wilson, 

White House, 

Washington, D. C. 

“ It looks too simple for the President — it ought 
to have more flourishes to it and titles and things, 
ishouldn’t it, Ken? You copy it and we’ll walk 
straight down to the post office and mail it so that it 
will go on to-night’s train.” 

SI 


KEINETH 


Tears were far from Keineth’s eyes as she walked 
by Barbara’s side down the white road between the 
fields of daisies and buttercups. The little cloud of 
loneliness that had for a brief time threatened her 
sky had disappeared and she was again a light- 
hearted little girl, eagerly awaiting the happy things 
that each new day at Overlook seemed to bring 
to her. 


CHAPTER V 

PILOT COMES TO OVERLOOK 

“ This is the third time in a week that Billy’s 
been late for dinner,” said Mrs. Lee, looking from 
Billy’s empty place at the table to his father’s face. 

Mr. Lee was serving the steaming chicken and 
biscuits that Nora had placed on the table. 

“ He asked me if he could go to the fair at 
Middletown ! He wanted his next week’s allowance.” 

“ William,” and Mrs. Lee’s gentle voice was 
stem, “you do spoil that boy dreadfully!” 

“ He’s with Jim Archer ! ” Peggy put in. She 
knew that her mother did not like Jim Archer. 

“ Billy’s with him a lot,” added Barbara. 

“ He teases us girls all the time, too. Mother ! 
He put June bugs in my bed last night!” cried 
Alice. 

“ Billy is certainly in all wrong just now,” an- 
swered Mr. Lee with a twinkle in his eyes. 

“ But do you think these fairs are quite the 
places for boys like Billy and Jim Archer — alone? ” 

53 


KEINETH 

asked Mrs. Lee with a troubled look. “ He should 
have been home long ago! They must have ridden 
their wheels ! ” 

“ Don’t worry, little mother I Billy will come 
home tired and hungry and none the worse for the 
fair! Why, when I was a boy I never missed a fair 
anywhere around and always walked, too! They 
used to be real fairs — nothing like them these days ! ” 

The children knew that when their father began 
his “ when I was a boy,” it could mean a story if 
there was a little coaxing ! 

“ Oh, tell us a story ! ” Alice cried. 

“ Please do ! ” added Keineth. It would make 
them all forget to feel cross toward Billy ! 

So, chuckling a little under his breath, Mr. Lee 
began: 

“ Down in our village old Cy Addington had a 
calf he’d entered in the County Fair. He’d set his 
heart on that calf’s winning a prize — all the other 
farmers had told him it would. It was black as 
jet with just a little white mark on its fore quarter. 
He tended that calf like a baby and spent hours at a 
time getting it all in shape for the Fair. Well, the 
night before the Fair opened two boys — ^bad boys 
54 


PILOT COMES TO OVERLOOK 


they were — stole that calf out of its shed, took it off 
in some woods where they had a lantern and a can 
of paint hidden under a log. What do you think 
they did ? Painted the animal white — snow white — 
every bit of him ! Then they took him to the grave- 
yard and tied him to a tombstone ! ” 

“ Oh, Daddy, how dreadful ! ” cried Alice. 

“ Then what happened ? ” demanded Keineth and 
Peggy in one voice. 

“ Well, a lot of things happened, and they hap- 
pened fast! Miss Cymantha Jones, a nervous 
spinster, was walking home from Widow Mark- 
ham’s house — rather late, but she’d been caring for 
the widow through a sick spell. And Miss Cymantha 
saw that calf jumping around among the tombstones 
and thought it was a ghost! She let out such 
screams that it brought Charley, the old sexton, 
running to the door in his night shirt, and he saw 
the calf, and Miss Cymantha scuttling down the road 
screaming and holding her skirts high so’s she could 
run faster, and I guess he thought it was the resur- 
rection itself, for what did he do but ring the bell 
and the folks all thought it was a fire and came 
rushing out in all kinds of clothes ! Then Cy Ad- 
55 


KEINETH 


dington found his precious calf and the neighbors 
had an indignation meeting right then and there 
and the ones who had the most clothes on started 
out to find the offenders and some of the others 
went in to quiet Miss Cymantha, and a few others 
put the sexton to bed and locked him in so th?it he 
couldn’t give any more alarms ! ” 

“ But what happened to the boys ? ” 

“ Oh, when the crowd was the most excited they 
just climbed over a woodshed into the house and by 
the time the volunteers were lined up to go to find 
them they were sound asleep! ” 

“ Who were they, Father? Were they boys you 
knew ? ” asked Peggy. 

Mr. Lee laughed down the length of the table 
and Peggy caught the answering smile in her 
mother’s eyes. 

“ Oh, I know — I know ! It was you. Daddy,” 
she cried, running from her chair to kiss the back 
of his head. 

“ Come, dear, sit down ! William, if you were 
that sort of a boy what can we expect of Billy? 
Hark — isn’t that his whistle ? ” 

S6 


PILOT COMES TO OVERLOOK 


She stepped eagerly to the door, the girls close 
behind her. 

“ He’s all right — ^he always whistles when he’s 
happy ! ” 

“ It is he ! ” cried Mrs. Lee, going down the steps. 
“And what in the world is he bringing with him ! ” 

For Billy, covered with dust, guiding his bicycle 
with one hand, was walking leisurely up the road 
leading with an air of pride edged slightly by a dis- 
turbing doubt, a dirty, weary-eyed dog! 

“ A dog — ^of all things! ” cried Barbara. 

“ Where’ d you get it? ” demanded Peggy eagerly. 

The family stood on the bottom step and eyed 
Billy’s treasure. The dog seemed to have no doubt 
as to his welcome, for in his desire to greet his 
adopted family he strained at the slender leash with 
which Billy held him. 

“ Whose dog is it, Billy,” asked Mrs. Lee. 

“I bought him for a dollar!” Billy glanced 
questioningly at his mother. He had heard her de- 
clare ever so often that she would not allow a long- 
haired dog in the house! And this new pet had a 
very long, shaggy, dirty hide! 

57 


KEINETH 


Peggy was on her knees with both arms around 
the dog’s neck. 

“ Just see him shake hands ! ” Alice was crying. 

But the quiet of Mrs. Lee’s manner disturbed 
Billy. “ I think you’d better come into the house and 
see if Nora has saved you any supper. After you 
have finished we will hear about the dog.” 

“ Let me hold him, please, Billy ! ” begged Peggy. 
Keineth stood a little apart. She was not yet sure 
that she wanted a closer acquaintance with the new- 
comer. She had known few dogs; her father had 
always warned her to leave the stray dogs that she 
met on the street quite alone — and she had detested 
Aunt Josephine’s silky poodle! But this poor scrap 
was wagging his stubby tail and looking at her in a 
coaxing manner that said plainly, “ Let’s be 
friends!” 

Within the house Billy was cramming down bis- 
cuits and chicken gravy with an enjoyment that 
covered the concern he felt at his mother’s attitude. 
When he could speak for the food in his mouth he 
told her of the crowds at the fair. But with the last 
mouthful of custard pie bolted he went straight to 
the point : 


58 


PILOT COMES TO OVERLOOK 


“Can I keep him, Mother?” 

She rose and, with Billy following, went out 
upon the veranda. At sight of his new master the 
dog broke away from Peggy and leaped upon him, 
his big paws on Billy’s shoulders. 

“ Can’t I keep him. Mummy ? ” he asked, plead- 
ingly, looking from his mother to his father. 

“ Mummy, this is such a lovely dog ” im- 

plored Alice, the June bugs* forgotten. 

“And we’ll take care of him,” added Peggy. 

Billy put one arm around the dog’s neck. 

“ I guess when you hear the story ’bout him 
you’ll let him stay,” he said solemnly. 

“ Tell us, son,” Mr. Lee joined in for the first 
time. 

So Billy stood before them to plead for his dog. 

“ Jim and I got to the Fair, ’nd he told me to 
wait outside and he’d scout around and see if he 
couldn’t find his uncle who had a show inside, ’cause 
Jim thought maybe his uncle could get us in for 
nothing and we’d have more money to spend. It 
was awful hot and I went over and sat under the 
trees across the road and watched the people come. 
All of a sudden I heard a dog cry, and over near one 
59 


KEINETH 


of the other trees was a man that looked like a tramp 
trying to make a dog go ahead and kicking him 
awful ’cause the dog wouldn’t go ! The dog would 
cry and then the man’d kick him again and swear 
awful. Well, I was mad — I gave that whistle that 
Rex used to know and the dog sort of listened, then 
I whistled harder and the dog made a jump and 
broke his string and ran like a flash right to me just’s 
if he knew I was a friend! The man came after 
him, swearing harder than ever. But I just took 
the dog and stood right up and I said to him : ‘ You 
don’t know how to treat a dog ! ’ I thought maybe 
he’d hit me, he looked so mad, but I went on talking 
real fast. I said, ‘ He’s a lot like a dog I know — 
what’ll you sell him for?’ Because I’d sort o’ de- 
cided he’d stolen him and might be glad to get rid 
of him, you see ! And the man said, ‘ How much’ll 
you give? ’ and I told him I’d give a dollar, and he 
reached out for the string and said, ‘ That ain’t 
enough,’ and I said, ‘ That’s all I’ve got,’ and just 
that minute a policeman came along towards us and 
he said quick, ‘ He’s yours,’ and I gave him my 
dollar and you ought to have seen him beat it I ” 
Upon the rest of the story Billy touched lightly — 
6o 


PILOT COMES TO OVERLOOK 

how, his dollar gone, he had had no money with 
which to buy his way into the fair; how Jim, re- 
turning from an unsuccessful search for the uncle 
and finding Billy and the dog under the tree, had, 
disgusted by Billy’s extravagance, left him there, 
bidding him wait! But later Jim had relented and 
had treated Billy to an ice-cream cone from the tent 
near the gate. Then Jim had started for home and 
Billy had walked the five miles between Middletown 
and Overlook, pushing the bicycle and leading the 
tired dog. 

“And I never saw the Fair at all,” he finished, 
breathless from his story. 

“ Well, Mother — don’t you think Billy deserves 
the dog? ” said Mr. Lee when Billy had finished. 
And Keineth whispered, “ Goody, goody ! ” 

Mrs. Lee laughed. “ I will say that he may stay 
here on trial — while we’re in the country. But, oh, 
dear — I had hoped we’d never have another dog — 
and of all things, a long-haired dog! ” 

“ Jim Archer said he was an Airedale,” broke in 
Billy, proudly stroking the dirty head. “ Pretty 
cheap for a dollar, I think ! ” 

“ Let’s name him,” cried Alice eagerly. 

6i 


KEINETH 


“ I think you’d better bathe him first,” chuckled 
Mr. Lee. Then, turning to his wife, “ You know I 
think it is a valuable dog! The fellow must have 
stolen him ! ” 

In triumph Billy and Peggy led the newcomer 
towards the pump for his bath, while Keineth went 
in search of soap and a sponge. Over the bath they 
discussed names and, as it looked as though they 
could not agree, they decided that, because Keineth 
was a visitor, she should select the name. 

And after a little thought she called him Pilot. 

“ Pilot Lee,” said Peggy, squeezing a spongeful 
of water over the dog’s head. 

An hour later a very tired boy was sleeping 
soundly, while on the floor beside his cot lay the 
dog — his warm muzzle faithfully snuggled against 
Billy’s dusty shoe. 


CHAPTER VI 

THE MUSIC THE FAIRIES PUT IN HER FINGERS 

On the shaded corner of the wide veranda Mrs. 
Lee sat making buttonholes in a blouse for Billy, 
humming as she worked. Occasionally she patted 
the crisp cloth in her hand as though she loved this 
task of stitching for her youngsters. About her 
quiet reigned ; broken now and then by Peggy’s bird 
in its cage and the far-off sound of the gasoline 
mower on the golf course. 

Suddenly Barbara came around the corner of 
the house, like a rose, in her fresh pink gingham. In 
her hand she swung a putter. 

“ Off for the golf links, dear? ” Mrs. Lee asked, 
glancing with pride over the straight, slim figure of 
the girl. 

“ Yes, Mother, Carol Day and I play off our 
match this afternoon. If I beat her I’ll win those 
candlesticks ” 

“ They will look very pretty on your dresser,” 
smiled Mrs. Lee. 


63 


KEINETH 


“ I know what you mean, Mother — that I’m just 
playing for the candlesticks alone and I’m not at all, 
for when I do win one I sort of hate taking a prize. 
But I would like to beat Carol because she does play 
such a good game ! ” 

“ That’s the spirit, Bab. Where are the little 
girls? ” 

“ That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, 
Mother.” Barbara, balancing herself on the arm of 
a chair, tapped her toe with the putter. “ Peggy and 
Alice have gone off to Molly Sawyer’s and they’ve 
left Keineth home. I don’t think they’re treating 
her a bit nicely ! ” 

“ Why didn’t she go with them ? ” 

“ I don’t think Peggy asked her to go. She and 
Molly were going to play tennis on the Sawyer courts 
with Joan Crate, a girl that’s out here from town, 
and Keineth felt left out. Peggy told her she 
couldn’t play well enough to play with them and 
that it spoiled a game playing with beginners, 
anyway ! ” 

Mrs. Lee stitched in silence. Barbara went on : 

“And I heard Billy the other day teasing her 
about her father. He laughed at her when she said 
64 


THE MUSIC IN HER FINGERS 


her father was a soldier, only the kind that didn’t 
wear a uniform, and he told her there weren’t any 
soldiers like that! I think you ought to speak to 
the children. Mother.” 

" Never mind, Bab, those things will straighten 
themselves. Peggy must be more considerate and 
patient and I will tell Billy something about Keineth’s 
father — Billy will be interested. We may some day 
have reason to be very proud of knowing him, for he 
may become a very great man, besides doing an im- 
mense good for this country of ours. Run along, 
dear, to your game and good luck to you ! ” 

Barbara kissed the top of her head and hurried 
away. Mrs. Lee sat on alone, her hands idly clasped 
over the blouse in her lap. It was her way to 
puzzle out these little problems quietly. 

Suddenly across the June stillness came the sound 
of exquisite music; clear, thrilling notes, unreal — 
fairylike! Almost hesitatingly Mrs. Lee turned as 
though she expected to see a fairy sprite in gauzy 
robes approaching her from the shadows of the 
house! She rose and crept toward the window. No 
sprite was there — only Keineth sitting before the 
piano, her small hands softly touching the keys as 

5 6s 


KEINETH 


though by magic she drew the melody from them. 
Across her fair head fell a slanting bar of sunlight. 
To this her eyes were raised in rapt contentment. 

From the window Mrs. Lee watched and listened. 
There seemed to be no beginning or end to the 
melody — it ran on and on, now plaintive, like a 
small voice crying — now full of laughter with a 
happy note like that of a bird. 

'' Child^ — ^ — ’’ Mrs. Lee stepped through the 
long window into the room. Keineth turned quickly. 

I didn’t know — anyone was here,” she said, 
shyly. 

But Mrs. Lee scarcely heard her. She had clasped 
her arms about the small form and was holding it 
very close. 

I was just playing — what the fairies put in my 
fingers,” Keineth explained from the depths of Mrs. 
Lee’s embrace. 

They are fairy fingers indeed,” laughed Mrs. 
Lee. Let us sit down here together and you must 
tell me all about it. Who taught you to play like 
that, child?” 

‘‘No one — like that. Madame Henri always 
gave me lessons. They were very stupid and I hated 
66 


A 


THE MUSIC IN HER FINGERS 


having to practice. But every evening, when we’d 
sit together, I’d play to Daddy the music that came 
into my fingers. Sometimes he’d stand by the piano 
until I was finished and then he’d kiss my fingers and 
say ‘ fairy fingers,’ only Xante used to snore so 
loudly, poor thing.” 

“ And you love music ? ” 

“ Oh — most of anything in the world. Some- 
times Daddy would take me to the big opera house 
to hear music and it seemed, when I heard it, as 
though I was floating right away. Then we’d go 
home and I’d make up more music and tell them a 
story on the piano and sometimes Daddy could guess 
the story almost. Xante used to shake her head and 
Daddy would say, ‘ Leave her alone — ^she knows 
more than we do.’ I don’t know what he meant, 
but some day I shall study hard and try to be a great 
musician. Daddy said — I should — only he said I 
must wait until my body grew as strong as my 
spirit.” 

“ Keineth, my dear, do you know what a precious 
trust has been given you? God gives to some of 
His children great gifts — they are in trust for Him! 
You must care for it and guard it and keep it and 
67 


KEINETH 


see that it is bestowed generously upon many ! Music 
is one of the most precious things in this world — 
and to create it is a great power ! ” 

Keineth, with puzzled eyes, tried to understand. 
Mrs. Lee patted her hand. 

“ How your mother would have loved to hear 
what these fingers can do! She had a nature that 
was like a song in its sweetness. But your father 
is right; before all else you must build up this little 
'body of yours ! ” 

“ What did he mean, Aunt Nellie? ” 

“ He wants you to run and play games and grow 
strong. And you must not be discouraged and 
unhappy if you can’t keep up just yet with Peggy 
and Billy and the others. Remember, while they’ve 
been racing their legs off you’ve been doing other 
things. If Peggy can beat you at tennis, you just 
ask her to play one of her pieces for you! Poor 
Peg, her fingers are all thumbs ! Everything evens 
up in this funny world, child.” 

“ You’re so wonderful. Aunt Nellie! I did feel 
as if Peggy didn’t like me because I couldn’t do 
things as well as she can, but if she’ll help me learn 
68 


THE MUSIC IH HER FINGERS 


to swim real well and beat Billy just once at tennis, 
I’ll help her with her music! ” 

“A fine idea, Keineth! And then sometimes, 
when Peggy perhaps wants to do something that you 
don’t care about, I will help you write down the 
music you play. Some day we will surprise them 
all — -you and I will have a secret ! ” 

Keineth clapped her hands eagerly. “ Oh, I 
have wished I could! It’ll be such fun! I’ll send 
it to my father! You are wonderful. Aunt Nellie.” 
The child threw her arms about Mrs. Lee’s neck in a 
burst of joy. 

“Remember, now! No discouraged heart be- 
cause you can’t get a ball over the net or stand on 
your head in the water! ” 

That evening an east wind blowing up with a 
fine, driving rain, gave an excuse for a fire in the 
big fireplace. And as they sat around it; Alice on 
the arm of her mother’s chair, Barbara close to her 
father, a little silent, because Carol Day had beaten 
her; Peggy and Keineth on the floor side by side, 
and Billy and his dog sprawled near the door, Mrs. 
Lee told the children the story of the little boy who 
went each day to his attic room to play on the old 
69 


KEINETH 


piano there ; how one day, the sound of the music 
reaching the ears of people below, they crept one 
by one to the dark stairway to listen. Then in 
wonder they brought others and even more. These 
foolish folk thought it was a spirit who came to the 
attic room and made the music, but finally one of 
them crept closer and opened the door and found the 
little boy ! 

“ I know, Mother,” cried Barbara, “ it was 
Mozart ! ” 

“ Yes, it was Mozart, who, when he grew older, 
made music that will last as long as this world. 
Keineth, will you play for us, dear ? ” 

Keineth, with a very red face, walked bravely 
to the piano. But her heart was happy and her 
fingers tingled with the music she felt. With the 
firelight dancing across the darkened room it seemed 
like the old library at home and as if Daddy must 
be sitting close to her with Madame Henri nodding 
in her chair near the window! 

They were silent when she had finished. Barbara 
sighed — ^as though the music had made her sad ; Billy 
said something under his breath that sounded like 
“ Gee ! ” and Mrs. Lee patted Peggy’s hand. She 
70 


THE MUSIC IN HER FINGERS 


had found time for a little talk with Peggy about 
Keineth. 

“ Oh, I think you’re wonderful ! ” Peggy cried 
now to Keineth, running to her and linking her hand 
in Keineth’s arm. “ I wish I could play one bit as 
well as that ” 

After the children had gone to bed Mr. and 
Mrs. Lee sat for a long time in the room lighted only 
by the flames of the fire. Somehow the music seemed 
to linger about them. 

“ Isn’t this world funny, William ” Mrs. 

Lee stared into the blaze. “ If that child had not 
lived that funny, lonely life in that big house with 
no one but the queer governess, that gift of hers 
might never have developed! I wonder what the 
future may have in store for her ? ” 

“Above all — let us hope — ^health and happiness I ” 


CHAPTER VII 


ALICE RUNS AWAY 

“ I’ve got something to show you all,” Billy 
announced at the luncheon table. He wore the satis- 
fied air of one who has accomplished something 
long desired. 

“ What’ve you got? ” Peggy answered promptly. 

“Guess!” Billy fixed his attention upon his 
plate in a tantalizing way. 

“ Oh, I know — it’s a new sending set ! I guessed 
first!” 

“ You didn’t guess, either! I’ll bet you saw Joe 
Cary bring it ! ” 

“What is a sending 'set? ” asked Keineth. 

“ I’ll show you afterwards,” Billy answered, 
with a kindness meant to crush Peggy. 

Mr. Lee broke in : “ But I thought you had to 
save three dollars more before you could buy 



Billy flushed. “ Well, this ain’t exactly mine— 
yet, Dad ! Joe Cary made it and he’s going to make 


ALICE RUNS AWAY 


another and he says I can use this one until I want 
to buy it or at least for a while. I have that dollar 
I was saving and my onions and radishes.” 

“ Good gracious ! ” Barbara laughed, “ I sup- 
pose we’ll live on onions and radishes three times 
a day.” 

Mr. Lee turned to Billy. “ Don’t you think, 
son, it might be better to wait until you have the 
money to pay Joe? And a little more practice? ” 

“ Billy’s always spending money on all those 
foolish things,” Barbara put in. “ He doesn’t seem 
to want to save and help you ! ” 

“ Well, say, don’t you think those things are 
foolish! You read all sorts of things how wireless 

messages save people ” 

“ On sinking ships, yes ! ” 

“Well, lots of other ways, too!” Billy’s face 
blazed with wrath. “ I’ll just show you some time ! ” 
“ Molly Sawyer’s brother knows a boy who is a 
wireless operator in the Canadian Army and sends 
messages from trees ! ” 

“And if I have a little more practice I can try 
the troop exams next winter and get a certificate ! ” 
“ Billy,” broke in his mother, “ run over to Mrs. 

73 


KEINETH 

Clark's and tell Alice to come home at once. Nora 
rang the bell for her but she did not hear.’^ 

Why, Mother," said Peggy, suddenly alarmed, 
Janet Clark was with us this morning!" 

Janet Clark was Alice's closest playmate. The 
two families lived in adjoining houses. Mrs. Lee 
had returned to the house at noon and Nora had 
told her that she had last seen Alice running through 
the gate between the two gardens. 

It was only a worried moment before Billy came 
home to say that Alice had not been there that morn- 
ing! It was not like Alice to be long away from 
home. Mrs. Lee, hiding her concern, directed the 
children to scour the neighborhood. 

Not until they had come back from the club and 
beach and neighboring houses and reported no sign 
of her did the mother and father openly express 
alarm. The children saw a look come into their 
mother's face that it had never worn before! Like 
a shock its agony pierced into each child's heart! 
Very white, Billy rushed off to enlist the services of 
his boy friends for a thorough search of the beach. 
Barbara, with her father, started in the motor for 
Middletown. 


74 


ALICE RUNS AWAY 

“ I will stay here near the telephone,” Mrs. Lee 
had said in answer to her husband’s quick, concerned 
look. 

Peggy came running down the stairs. 

“ Her bathing suit is gone. Mammy, and her 
pink apron ” 

“And her penny bank is broken ! ” Keineth held 
out in her hands the pieces of the china pig which 
had held Alice’s collection of pennies. “ It’s all 
broken ! ” and, miserably, Keineth looked down at 
the fragments. 

“ We will find her,” said Mrs. Lee, bravely, 
putting an arm about each child. “ You girlies 
must stay with me and help me.” 

From Middletown Mr. Lee telephoned that they 
had found a clue. A child answering Alice’s de- 
scription had stopped at a small candy store and 
had purchased a selection of lolly-pops. She had 
paid for them in pennies. Someone in the store 
had seen her climb upon a trolley car bound for the 
city. Mr. Lee and Barbara were going on to the 
city. 

But at dusk they returned with no further news. 
In the crowd at the city station no one had seen the 
75 


KEINETH 


child ! And Billy and his boy friends had found no 
trace upon the beach ! 

“ The police are working,” the children heard 
their father say. Then Mrs. Lee suddenly sank 
limp against his arm and he led her away. 

“ Cobrage — courage!” they heard him 
whispering. 

Nora laid a tempting meal upon the table and 
carried it away, for no one could eat a mouthful. 
Peggy had run to her room, where Keineth found 
her — ^her face buried deep in her pillow. 

“ Oh,” she sobbed, “ I’ve been so mean to Allie 
lots of times and maybe she’s dead somewhere and 
I can’t ever tell her ” 

Keineth could offer small comfort, but the two 
locked their arms tight about one another and 
listened as though in the gathering darkness they 
might hear Alice’s dear voice. 

Mr. Lee had rushed off again to the city after a 
whispered word to Barbara to stay close to her 
mother. Billy, his heart breaking, his eyes burning 
with the tears which his boyish pride would not 
allow him to show, and feeling the bitterness of his 
youth and his uselessness, slowly mounted the stairs 
76 


ALICE RUNS AWAY 

to the comer of the attic which was his own par- 
ticular den. The nickel of his beloved wireless 
apparatus gleamed at him through the darkness. 
Like a flash a hope sprang into his heart ! Snatch- 
ing up the phone he placed it upon his head, then 
ticked off his message, with call after call, in every 
direction ! 

Now and then someone picked up his words — ^ 
an unsatisfactory answer would come back. How- 
ever, finding relief in doing something, Billy re- 
peated his calls; listening intently for any answer. 

Just as to his mind vividly came the picture of 
Alice’s hurt face, when, that very morning, he had 
roughly taken from her his old stamp book, his own 
call came through the air. Every nerve in his body 
tingled a response! It was Freddie Murdock — they 
had often talked back and forth across the lake 
from where, on the Canadian shore, Freddie Mur- 
dock’s father had a cottage. And the words that 
Freddie was sending to him by the waves of the air 
were : “ Sister found — all right ! ” 

Shouting the good news Billy mshed three steps 
at a time down the stairs straight into his mother’s 
arms! She clung to him, burying the boy’s face, 
77 


KEINETH 

down which the tears were streaming, close to her 
heart. 

And while they clung together, crying and half 
laughing, Barbara reached her father on the tele- 
phone tO' tell him how Alice had been found! 

Two hours later Genevieve brought the little 
truant home. Mrs. Lee carried her off for a warm 
bath and bed, while Nora, her eyes very red with 
weeping, fixed her a bowl of hot milk toast. 

I coaxed the story from her,’' Mr. Lee told 
his wife and Barbara later; ‘‘that child wanted to 
see Midway Beach! Do* you remember how hard 
she begged to go with the Clarks when they went 
over and how unreasonable she thought we were in 
refusing? Well, she just made up her mind to go 
alone. She took her bathing suit and her pennies. 
She walked from here to Middletown, took the trol- 
ley there for the city. On the trolley she saw a 
party of picnickers headed for Midway Beach and 
she just walked along with them. It was very 
simple. She watched the merry-go-rounds and 
Spent all her pennies ! When it began to grow dark 
she laid down on the beach and fell asleep. They 
found her there, later, after young Murdock had 
78 


ALICE RUNS AWAY 

given the alarm of a child lost! She didn’t seem 
to be frightened until they handed her over to a 
policeman to take her back to the city; then the 
seriousness of her runaway must have come to her. 
I do not think you will have to worry that she will 
do it again.” 

Up in her cot Alice lay wide awake. Beside her 
Peggy and Keineth, exhausted by their anxiety, were 
breathing heavily. Below Alice could hear voices 
that she knew were her father’s and mother’s. She 
wished awfully that her mother would come to her I 
With a child’s instinct she had read on her mother’s 
face the suffering she had caused. Suddenly she 
felt terribly alone — ^perhaps none of them would 
love her now or want her back. She had been so 
very, very naughty. She clutched the blanket with 
frightened fingers. 

The voices ceased below and in a moment Alice 
saw her mother’s face bending over her. With a 
little cry she threw her arms about the dear neck. 

“ Oh, Mammy, Mammy,” she cried, in a passion 
of sobs, “ say you love me — say you want me back I 
I don’t ever, ever, ever want to go away alone 1 I 
thought it would be fun — I didn’t think I was so 
79 


KEINETH 

naughty. Hold me dose, Mammy ” exhausted, 

she hid her face. 

“ Oh, my dear — ^my baby,” the mother breathed 
in comfort and forgiveness, and the loving arms did 
not relax their hold until the child was fast asleep. 

“ I think, Billy,” said Mr. Lee, the next morn- 
ing, “ the family will present to you with their 
compliments the finest sending set we can find ! ” 

“And aren’t they useful?” Billy cried in just 
triumph. 


CHAPTER VIII 
A PAGE FROM HISTORY 

For several days a peaceful quiet reigned at 
Overlook. Little Alice dogged her mother^s foot- 
steps, as though she couldNiot bear one moment’s 
separation; Barbara spent the greater part of her 
time at the golf club, coming home each day glowing 
with enthusiasm over the game and fired with a hope 
of winning the women’s championship title. Billy 
had no thought for anything but the new sending 
set which his father had ordered for him and which 
Joe Cary was helping him to install. Keineth, under 
Peggy’s tutorage, was faithfully practicing at tennis, 
spending much time volleying balls back and forth 
across the net and trying to understand the technic 
of the game. Then each afternoon came a delicious 
dip into the lake, when Mrs. Lee would patiently 
instruct Keineth in swimming. They were glori- 
ously happy days — seeming very care-free after the 
hours of agonizing concern over Alice; days that 

6 8i 


KEINETH 


brought new color into the young faces and an added 
glow into the bright eyes. 

“ Dc^ Keineth know how we spend the Fourth 
of July? ” Billy asked one evening. 

“ I hate firecrackers ! ” Keineth shuddered. 
“ We always went away over the Fourth to a little 
place out on Long Island.” 

“ We just have balloons and Roman candles in 
the evening because they are not dangerous,” Peggy 
explained. 

“And then on the Fourth we always make our 
visit to Grandma Sparks.” 

“ Who is she? ” asked Keineth. She had never 
heard them speak of Grandma Sparks. 

“ Father calls her a page out of history.” 

“ Every man that had ever lived in her family 
has served his country ” 

“ She isn’t really our grandmother. Just a dear 
friend.” 

Barbara explained further ; “ She has the most 
interesting little old home about two miles from 
here. Part of it is over one hundred years old! 
She lives there all alone. And her house is filled 
with the most wonderful furniture — queer chairs 
82 


A PAGE FROM HISTORY 


and great big beds with posts that go to the ceiling 
and one has to step on little stepladders to get into 
them, only no one ever does because she lives there 
all alone. She has some plates that Lafayette ate 
from and a cup that George Washington drank out 
of ” 

“And the funniest toys^ — a doll that belonged to 
her grandmother and is made of wood and painted, 
with a queer silk dress, all ruffles ! She always lets 
me play with it.” 

“And her great-great-grandmother, when she 
was a little girl, held an arch with some other chil- 
dren, at Trenton, for Washington to pass through 
when he went by horse to New York for his first 
inauguration. They all wore white and the arch 
was covered with roses. Grandma Sparks loves to 
tell of it and how Washington patted her great- 
great-grandmother on the head! If you ask her to 
tell you the story she will be very happy, Keineth.” 

“ I like her guns best ” cried Billy. “ She’s 

got all kinds of guns and things they used way back 
in the Revolution ! ” 

“And she has a roomful of books and letters 
83 


KEINETH 


from great people that her ancestors collected. Why, 
Father says that she would be very rich if she’d sell 
the papers she has, but she will not part with a 
thing! Mother says she just lives in the past and 
she’d rather starve than to take money for one of 
her relics! ” 

“ I’d rather have the money, you bet,” muttered 
Billy. 

“ I wouldn’t — I think it must be wonderful to 
have a letter that was really written and signed by 
President Lincoln himself,” Barbara declared. 

“ I’m awfully glad we’re going there,” said 
Keineth eagerly. 

“ Let’s ask her to tell us about how her brother 
dug his way out of Andersonville Prison! She’ll 
show us the broken knife, Ken ! ” 

“ Why, Billy, she’s told us that stoiy dozens of 
times — let’s ask for a new one!” To Keineth; 
“After she gives us gingerbread and milk and little 
tarts she tells us a story while we all sit under the 
apple tree ! ” 

“And say, she can make the best tarts ! ” inter- 
rupted Billy. 


84 


A PAGE FROM HISTORY 


“ Oh, I wish the Fourth would hurry and come ! ” 
echoed Kedneth. 

It did come — a glorious simny morning ! Billy’s 
bugle wakened them at a very early hour. Before 
breakfast the children, with Mr. and Mrs. Lee, 
circled about the flag pole on the lawn, and, while 
Billy slowly pulled the Stars and Stripes to the top, 
in chorus they repeated the oath of allegiance to 
their flag. Keineth — ^her eyes turned upward, sud- 
denly felt a rush of loneliness for her father. A 
little prayer formed on her lips tO' the flag she was 
honoring. “ Please take care of him wherever 
he is ! ” 

At noon, in Genevieve, they started merrily off 
for Grandma Sparks! In her mind Keineth had 
drawn a picture of a stately Colonial house, with 
great pillars, such as she had sometimes seen while 
driving with Aunt Josephine. Great was her sur- 
prise when Billy turned into a grass-grown driveway 
which led past a broken-down gate and stopped at 
the door of a weather-gray house; its walls almost 
concealed by the vines growing from ground to 
gable and even rambling over the patched roof. At 
85 


KEINETH 


the door of the house stood a noble apple tree, spread- 
ing its branches in loving protection over the old 
stone steps which led to the threshold. 

Through the small-paned window Grandma 
Sparks had been watching for them. She came out 
quickly ; a tiny figure in a dress as gray and weather- 
beaten as the house itself, a cap covering her white 
head. Her hands were stretched out in eager wel- 
come and her smile seemed to embrace them all 
at once. 

“ Well — well — well,” was all she could say. 

Keineth felt suddenly as though this quaint little 
lady had indeed stepped out of one of her own dusty 
old books — ^she could not be a part, possibly, of their 
busy world! And while the others talked she ex- 
amined, with unconcealed interest, the queer heavy 
furniture, the colored prints on the walls and the 
old spinnet in the corner. Billy was already taking 
down the guns and Alice sat rocking the doll. 

Keineth was shown the picture of the great- 
great-grandmother who had held the arch and was 
told the story; she saw the plates and the cup and 
the broken knife. They unfolded the flags that had 
86 


A PAGE PROM HISTORY 


been in the family for generations and reread the 
letters that Mrs. Sparks kept in a heavy mahogany 
box. One of them — most treasured of all — had been 
written to her mother in praise of her brother’s 
bravery on the battlefield under action, and was 
signed “A. Lincoln.” 

“ My greatest grief in life,” the little old lady 
said, holding the letter close to her heart, “ is that 
I have no son who may for his generation serve his 
country, if they need him! ” 

Afterwards Barbara told Keineth that Mrs. 
Sparks had once had a little boy who had been born 
a cripple and died when he was twelve years old. 

While Barbara and Peggy were busy spreading 
a picnic table under the apple tree, Keineth told 
Grandma Sparks of her own father and how he had 
gone away to serve his country, too; but that it 
was a secret and no one knew he was a soldier be- 
cause he wore no uniform. 

“ The truest hearts aren’t always under a uni- 
form, my dear,” and the old lady patted Keineth’s 
hand. “ The service that is done quietly and with 
no beating of drums is the hardest service to do ! ” 
87 


KEINETH 


After the picnic — and the picnic had included the 
gingerbread and tarts and patties that Barbara had 
described and which the dear old lady had spent 
hours in preparing — they grouped themselves under 
the apple tree ; Grandma in the old rocker Billy had 
brought from the house. 

“ Not about Andersonville, please,” begged 
Peggy. “ Why, I know that by heart ! A new 
one!” 

“ Something about the war,” Billy urged. 

Barbara interrupted, shuddering. “No — no! I 
can’t bear to think there is a war right now ” 

“ Child — I had thought that never again in my 
lifetime would this world know a war! We have 
much to learn, yet — ^we are not ready for a lasting 
peace. But it will come ! ” 

“ That’s what my father says — we must all learn 
to live like families in a nice street,” added Keineth 
gravely. 

“ Oh, well — if the girls can’t stand a story about 
the war, tell us something about the early settlers ! I 
like adventure^ — if I’d lived in those days you bet 
I’d have discovered something ! ” 

88 


A PAGE FROM HISTORY 


“ I remember,” mused the old lady, “ a story 
my father used to tell ! We have the papers about 
it somewhere. Let me think — it was about a trading 
post on the Ohio and a captive maiden brought there 
by the Indians ! ” 

Billy threw his cap in the air. 

“ Indians ! Hooray ! ” 


CHAPTER IX 
THE CAPTIVE MAIDEN 

Grandma Sparks folded her hands contentedly 
in her lap and fastened her eyes upon the distant 
tree-tops. 

“ Years and years ago, when this land was a 
vast forest, a band of Canadian and French soldiers 
and traders made their way through the wilderness 
to the banks of the Ohio where they built a small 
fort and started a trading post. The land was rich 
about them and they were soon carrying on a pros- 
perous trade with the Indians who came to the fort. 
Though these Indians were friendly the soldiers 
had made the fort as strong as possible, for they 
knew that no one could tell at what moment they 
might be attacked! Sometimes weeks and months 
would pass when no Indian would come their way; 
then some of the traders would journey back along 
the trail with their wealth, leaving the others at the 
fort to guard it. 

“ In their number was a soldier who had once 


go 


THE CAPTIVE MAIDEN 


escaped from England; had gone into France and 
from there to Canada, all because he had made the 
King angry ! Everyone in England thought he was 
dead. After years of lonely wandering he had 
joined the little band of adventurers when they 
started for the West — ^as they called it in those days ! 
He was a queer man, for he seldom talked to his 
fellows, but they knew he was brave and would give 
up his life for any one of them ! They called him 
Robert — no one knew his other name, nor ever 
asked. 

“ It was the custom at the trading post to treat 
the Indians with great politeness. Sometimes great 
chiefs came to the fort and then the soldiers and 
traders acted as though they were entertaining the 
King of England. 

“ One early morning a sentry called out to his 
fellows that Indians were approaching. The soldiers 
quickly made all preparations for their reception. 
The commanding officer went forward with some 
of his men to meet them. The Indian band was led 
by a chief — a great, tall fellow with a kingly bearing, 
and behind him another Indian carried in his arms 
the limp form of a white girl. 

91 


KEINETH 


“ Briefly the chief explained that the girl was 
hurt; that they, the white men, must care for her! 
Where they had found her — what horrible things 
might have happened before they made her captive 
no one could know, for an Indian never tells and 
the white men knew better than to ask ! The girl 
was carried into shelter and laid upon a rough 
wooden bed. It was Robert, the outlaw, who helped 
unwind the covers that bound her. 

“ In astonishment the soldiers beheld the face 
of a beautiful girl — ^waxen white in her unconscious- 
ness. Silently the Indians let the white medicine- 
man care for their captive. She had been so ter- 
ribly hurt that for days she lay as though dead! 
While the soldiers entertained the Indians, the 
medicine-man and Robert worked night and day to 
save the young life. 

“ Having finished trading with the white men 
the Indians prepared to return to their village, which, 
they told the white men, was far away toward the 
setting sun. The girl was too ill to be moved; so, 
with a few words, the Indian Chief told the officer 
of the fort that soon they would return for the girl — 
whom he claimed as his squaw — ^and that if ill befell 
92 


THE CAPTIVE MAIDEN 


her, or, on their return, she was gone — a dozen 
scalps he would take in turn ! The officer could do 
no more than promise that the Indian’s captive 
would be well guarded. 

“And every white man of them knew that as 
surely as the sun sets the Indian would return for 
the girl whom he claimed as his squaw, and that if 
she was not there for him to take, twelve of them 
would pay with their lives ! 

“ The weeks went on arid the girl grew well and 
strong, but, because of her horrible accident, could 
remember nothing of her past. She was like an 
angel to the rough traders and soldiers ; going about 
among them in the simple robe they had fashioned 
for her of skins and sacking, with her fair hair lying 
over her shoulders and her eyes as blue as the very 
sky. And because she could not tell them her name 
they called her Angele. 

“ One day a message was brought to their fort 
telling of war in the Colonies — that the English were 
fighting the French and that all Canada would be 
swept with flame and blood ! Almost to a man they 
said they would go back to fight. One among them 
did not speak — it was Robert ! Though he had fled 
93 


KEINETH 


from England never to return, he could not lift his 
hand against her. And someone must stay with 
Angele ! 

“ By the camp fire they talked it over. It was 
decided that four of them would remain at the fort 
until the chieftain came to claim his captive. One 
of these would be Robert ; the other three would be 
chosen by lot. 

“ So while the others went home along the trail 
over which they had come, the four guarded the 
little fort for Angele’s sake. Three of them gave 
little thought to that time when the Indian chief 
would come for the girl — to them it simply meant 
that their guard would be ended and that they, too, 
might return — ^but Robert went about with a heavy 
heart, for, as the days passed, it seemed to him 
more and more impossible to give the girl into a life 
of bondage ! Under the stars he vowed that before 
he would do that he would run his knife deep into her 
heart, and pay with his own life. 

“Angele’s contentment was terribly shattered 
one evening when, at stmdown, three Indians came 
to the fort. ' At the sight of them she uttered a ter- 
rible scream and fled into hiding. They said they 
94 


THE CAPTIVE MAIDEN 


had been wandering over the country and had come 
to the fort quite by chance and only sought a friendly 
shelter for the night, but the sight of their brown 
bodies and dark faces had shocked the girl’s mind 
in such a way as to bring back the memory of every- 
thing that had happened to her and hers at the hands 
of these red men. Robert found her crouched in a 
corner weeping in terror. To him she told her story ; 
how the little band of people, once happy families in 
the land of Acadia, roaming in search of a home, 
had been surprised by an attack of Indians; how 
before her very eyes every soul of them had been 
killed and she alone had been spared because the 
chief wanted her for his squaw ! They had carried 
her away with them; for days they had travelled 
through strange forests, for hours at a time she was 
scarcely conscious. Then, attempting escape, she 
had received the blow from a tomahawk that had 
hurt her so cruelly. It was a terrible story. Robert 
listened to the end and then, taking her two hands 
and holding them close to his heart, told her solemnly 
that never would she be given again to the Indians ! 

“ But he did not tell her of his vow, for suddenly 
he knew that life would be very, very happy if he 
95 


KEINETH 

could escape from the fort with her and go back to 
the Colonies ! 

“ The three Indians, before departing, had told 
of an entire tribe they had overtaken only a little 
way off, decked out as if for a great ceremony and 
led by a chieftain! Robert well knew who they 
were. If they were to escape it must be before the 
dawn of another day! 

“ That night — quietly, that Angele might not be 
frightened — the men talked together over the fire. 
Robert unfolded a plan. The others must start east- 
ward immediately along the river trail. Then as soon 
as the moon had gone down, he and Angele would 
go in the bark canoe the men had built — ^paddle as 
far eastward as they could, then make for the shelter 
of the forests. 

“ The others were eager to escape — for they 
knew now that the man Robert would never give 
up the girl, and they loved their own scalps ! They 
hastily gathered together what they wanted to take 
with them and stole from the fort. During their 
idle days they had dug an underground passage from 
the fort to the river; through this they escaped 
quickly to the trail. 


96 


THE CAPTIVE MAIDEN 


“ Robert wakened Angele and told her of his 
plan. She said not a word, but by the fire in her 
eyes Robert knew what escape meant to her. Then, 
gently, he asked her if — ‘when they had found safety 
in the Colonies — she would go with him to a priest 
to be married, and for answer she turned and kissed 
him upon his hand. 

“ While Robert loaded the canoe which he found 
at the river bank near the opening of the rough 
tunnel, Angele joyfully made her few preparations 
for the long journey. 

“ Before leaving the fort Robert gave to Angele 
a small knife, telling her that if they were captured 
she must use it quickly to end her own life! He 
then carefully barred every possible entrance, know- 
ing that though the Indians could beat these down 
or fire the entire place, it would mean some delay 
in their pursuit and give them a little start toward 
safety. 

“ Just as the moon disappeared and a heavy dark- 
ness enveloped them they pushed away from shore. 
But as they started down the river a horrible whoop 
split the air! Angele pressed her hands tight to 
her mouth to still her scream of terror. With a 
7 97 


KEINETH 


mighty stroke Robert paddled for midstream. But 
just as he did so an arrow shot past Angele and 
buried itself in the soft part of his leg! 

“ The three Indians who had come and gone in 
such friendly fashion were not of the far-off tribe 
they claimed to be, but had been sent on ahead by 
the chieftain to see how things were at the fort. 
They had gone back and told their story and the 
chieftain, expecting that some escape might be 
attempted, had planned to surprise the fort in the 
night. 

“ His flesh stinging with the wotmd of the arrow, 
Robert lifted his musket and fired quickly. Years 
before, in his own country, he had been honored 
by his King for his good marksmanship, but it was 
God who guided that aim through the darkness, for 
it shot straight into the very heart of the chieftain ! 
While, in confusion, the Indians gathered about their 
fallen chief, Robert, with Angele fainting at his 
feet, was soon lost in the kindly darkness of the 
river — ^paddling eastward ! ” 

“ Oh, were they saved ? ” cried Peggy, drawing 
a long breath. 

”Yes. Days afterward they reached a fort 
98 


THE CAPTIVE MAIDEN 


where they found a priest who married them. And 
they lived happy, useful lives in a settlement in 
Pennsylvania. Some records of the fort where the 
priest married them tell the whole story — ^they’re 
right in the house,” and Grandma nodded her head 
proudly toward the open door. 

“ Didn’t I tell you she was like a page out of 
history?” Barbara asked Keineth as they drove 
homeward. 

“ You just feel as if you were an American 
History book, beginning with the discovery of 
America,” laughed Peggy. 

“ If I was a history book I’d leave out dates and 
the Cabots — I never can get ’em straight,” Billy 
chimed 

“ There must be lots and lots of stories about 
brave men that were never put in books,” Keineth 
added thoughtfully. 

Peggy yawned widely. “ Well, I’m glad I’m not 
that poor captive maiden and just plain Peggy Lee 
of Overlook ! ” 

“And I’m gladder still that mother is sure to have 
ice cream for dinner ! ” 

This, of course, from Billy. 

99 


CHAPTER X 


PILOT IN DISGRACE 

“Anyone might think that this was Friday the 
thirteenth,” growled Billy. “ I broke my fishing 
rod and I’ve lost my knife and Jim Archer stepped 
on a nail and can’t go on a hike this afternoon ” 

Billy’s curious talk never failed to interest 
Keineth. She knew that it was not Friday and it was 
not the thirteenth and wondered what Billy ever 
meant ! But she never asked him ; something in the 
scornful superior ^ with which Billy treated all girls 
made Keineth very shy with him. She wished they 
might be better friends, for she felt very sure that 
it would be great fun to share with him the exciting 
adventures Billy seemed always to find! Vaguely 
she wondered what she could do that miight put her 
on an equal footing with this freckled-faced lad 
who was, after all, only two years older than she 
was! 

“ Jim stepped on the nail yesterday — ^what’s that 
got to do with to-day ! ” Peggy answered teasingly. 


lOO 


PILOT IN DISGRACE 


“ Well, we were going to hike to-day,” Billy ex- 
plained, too doleful to indulge in retort. “And all 
the other fellows are doing something else.” 

“ Billy — Billy,” called Alice from around the 
corner. “ Just see what I found ! ” She ran toward 
them, holding in her hand a dirty, ragged piece of 
leather. 

“ Where’d you find that ? ” demanded Billy, tak- 
ing it from her. “ It’s — ^why, jiminy crickets — it’s 
one of my best shoes ! ” 

Billy meant that it had been 1 

“ Pilot ! ” the children cried,, looking at one 
another. 

“ That’s what mother used to scold about Rex 
doing,” Peggy recalled. 

“ Why couldn’t he eat my old ones ! ” groaned 
Billy, throwing the leather off into some bushes. He 
felt troubled — ^he remembered that he had left the 
shoes out on the floor of his dressing room. It was 
all his fault, but Pilot would be blamed! 

“ What can we do?” asked Keineth, sensing a 
tragedy. 

“ I don’t care anything about the shoes,” an- 
swered Billy, “ ’cause I’d just as soon wear these 

lOI 


KEINETH 


old ones as not — ^what d’ I care about shoes ? But 
mother’ll say that we can’t keep the dog!” 

“ He’s only on trial ” Peggy broke in sadly. 

“ If you' girls could keep it a secret we’d give 

Pilot another chance ” 

“ Alice is sure to tell ! She can’t keep anything ! ” 
“ I can keep a secret! You just try me! ” 

“ Well, then,” Billy lowered his voice mysteri- 
ously, “not a word! You just cross your hearts 
that you won’t tell a word ! We’ll give Pilot another 
chance ! ” 

Solemnly the three girls crossed their hearts. 
Billy went off then in search of some amusement of 
his liking, leaving them with the burden of the 
secret. 

It weighed upon them through the day. And 
the more heavily when at noon time the cook from 
Clark’s tapped upon the kitchen door and reported 
with great indignation that “ jes’ while her back 
was turned a minute that there dog had stolen her 
leg she was. about to be carvin’ and had gone off with 
it like he was possessed.” 

“Your leg — ^well, now!” cried Nora, all 
sympathy. 


102 


PILOT IN DISGRACE 


“ Faith — not my own leg, but a leg of lamb! ” 
wept the other, “ and what the mistress will be a 
sayin’ I don’t know ! ” 

“ Where is that dog?” Mrs. Lee had sternly 
asked of the children. No one knew. Keineth and 
Peggy exchanged troubled glances and then fixed 
frowning eyes upon Alice. 

“ It really is very foolish in us to keep him,” 
Mrs. Lee went on. “ Probably this is just the be- 
ginning of the annoyances he will cause! ” 

“ He tramples down the flowers terribly,” 
Barbara complained. 

Mr. Lee caught the anxious look in Billy’s eyes. 

“ Well, well. Mother, perhaps Billy will keep a 
closer watch on his dog after this ! ” 

Billy promised with suspicious readiness. “ Mr. 
Sawyer says Pilot’s a valuable dog,” he told them. 
“And we ought not to give a valuable dog away, 
anyway ! ” 

“ We’ll see,” Mrs. Lee concluded. 

But that evening Pilot sealed his own doom ! 

For, as the children were playing croquet near 
the veranda, he came running across the lawn and 
103 


Ki:iNETH 

triumphantly dropped at Billy’s feet a beautiful gold 
fish, quite dead! 

“ Oh — oh — oh ! ” screamed Alice. 

“ It’s from Sawyer’s pond ! ” cried Peggy on her 
knees. 

“ The poor little thing.” Keineth lifted it. “ It’s 
dead!” 

“ It’s their new Japanese gold fish,” added Bar- 
bara, who, with Mrs. Lee, had come down the steps 
from the veranda. “ You’ll have to pay for this, 
Billy!” 

“ I think this is the last straw,” said Mrs. Lee 
sternly, turning to her husband. 

“ Oh, Mammy, he couldn’t help it — ^they swim 
round and he thinks they are playing ! ” Peggy 
implored. 

Pilot, standing back, his tail wagging slowly, 
regarded them with wondering, disappointed eyes. 
He had felt so very proud of his fish and now his 
family seemed to look upon him with displeasure. 

“And I can tell the secret now,” cried Alice, 
“ we weren’t going to tell — ^he ate one of Billy’s 
best shoes ! ” 

“ You just wait ! ” cried Billy. 


104 


PILOT IN DISGRACE 


Peggy turned a terrible face upon Alice. “ We’ll 
never, never, never tell anything to the tell-baby 
again! ” she hissed. “ Will we, Ken? ” 

“ I guess I knew it first,” Alice whimpered. 

“ It was my fault — 1 left them out. Mother ! 
And I’d just as soon wear my old shoes! ” Billy 
turned pleadingly to his mother. 

“ I am sure you would,” she smiled, “ but never- 
theless I must be firm about this dog. He is a 
nuisance and will be an expense. By the time we 
have paid the Clarks for their lamb and the Sawyers 
for their goldfish and bought you a pair of shoes the 
damages against Pilot will have run up to a nice 
little sum ! ” 

“ But, Mother, you can take it out of my 
allowance ! ” 

“ That will not guard against other things of 
this same sort happening. No, my son, I do not 
like to make you unhappy, but we must get rid of 
the dog. Please say no more about it. Day after 
to-morrow we’ll send him into the city with the 
vegetable man.” 

Mrs. Lee turned back to the veranda. When 
she spoke with that tone in her voice the children 
los 


KEINETH 


never answered. Peggy, linking her arm in 
Keineth’s, turned an angry shoulder upon Alice. 
Billy blinked his eyes very fast to clear them of the 
tears that had gathered in spite of himself, threw his 
arm about the dog’s neck and led him away to some 
hiding place where, secure from intrusion, he could 
pour out his rebellious heart to his pet. 

“ There’s no use staying angry at Alice ! ” 
Keineth protested in a low tone to Peggy as they 
walked away. She felt sorry for the little girl 
standing at a little distance irresolutely swinging a 
croquet mallet. “ It was her secret, anyway and 
Aunt Nellie would have found out about the shoe 
some time. Perhaps we were wrong not to tell her 
at first.” 

“ You always stand up for everybody,” Peggy 
complained, dropping Keineth’s arm in vexation. 
But Peggy’s sunny nature could not long carry a 
grudge of any kind. She had made a solemn vow, 
too, that she would never be unkind to Alice again ! 
And there would be just time before dark to play 
one more game of croquet ! 

“ Will you play, Allie? You can have red and 
play last,” she cried. “ Come on, Ken! ” 

106 


CHAPTER XI 
PILOT WINS A HOME 

“ What a horrid day ! with a wide yawn Peggy 
threw the stocking she was darning into the basket. 
“ I wish mother wouldn’t make me wear stockings — 
then I wouldn’t have any holes ! ” 

“ I wish the sun would shine,” Alice chimed, 
disconsolately. 

“If mother were here, she would say that we 
must make our own sunshine,” Barbara laughed. 
She was folding carefully the white undergarment 
she had finished making for her college “ trousseau ” 
— ^as her father called it. 

“ Well, it seems as if everything goes wrong all 
at once,” Peggy refused to be cheered. The chil- 
dren knew she was thinking of Pilot. Pilot’s dis- 
grace and sentence hung like a gloomy cloud over 
their hearts. 

“ Who’d believe you could think so much of a 
dog?” Keineth frowned as she pondered the thought. 
“ I used to think Aunt Josephine was so silly over 

107 


KEINETH 


Fido. I am sure Fido was never as nice as our Pilot, 
but I suppose Aunt Josephine thinks he’s much nicer. 
Once he swallowed a paper of needles from Aunt 
Josephine’s work basket and she almost fainted, and 
Celeste had to call a doctor for her and another for 
the dog and they sent the dog to a hospital. Then 
Aunt Josephine blamed Celeste and told her she 
must leave at once and Celeste had hysterics, for 
you see she’d been with my aunt since she was very 
young and they had to send for the doctor again, 
for Celeste.” 

“ Oh, how funny ! ” laughed. Peggy, though 
Keineth’s face was very serious. 

“ Then Aunt Josephine felt sorry and forgave 
Celeste and they called up the next day from the 
hospital to say that Fido was very well and that 
needles seemed to agree with him. But Aunt 
Josephine worried for weeks and weeks over him.” 

“ Pilot would know better than to eat needles,” 
Alice broke in scornfully. 

“ Yes — he likes shoes and goldfish,” Barbara 
finished. “ Where’s Billy? ” 

From the mother to the smallest of them they 
felt sorry for Billy. For, though Billy had said 
io8 


PILOT WINS A HOME 

not a word concerning the fate of his pet, the hurt 
look in his eyes betrayed the sorrow he felt. No 
one knew where he was — he had disappeared quietly 
after breakfast. And Pilot was with him. 

“ No tennis or golf to-day,” grieved Barbara, 
going to the window. 

“ Anyway we can swim,” cried Peggy. 

“ In the rain? ” asked Keineth, astonished. 

“ Why, of course, silly! Wouldn’t we get wet, 
anyway ? ” 

Keineth’s face colored. Peggy went on with a 
toss of her head : “And I simply must practice swim- 
ming under water to-day — the contest isn’t very far 
off. 'You can’t expect me to help you out to the 
rock, Ken, you’ll have to play in shallow water ! ” 

Keineth’s soul smarted under this humiliation. 
The rock was the goal around which their fun 
centred. It was twenty yards out from shore and 
its broad, flat surface gave room for six of them 
to stand upon it at one time. As around it the water 
was five feet deep, it was necessary for one of the 
children to help Keineth reach it. Then, while the 
others practiced all the feats known to the fish 
world, Keineth always stood carefully in its centre, 

IC59 


KEINETH 

head and shoulders above the water’s surface and 
watched them with interest and admiration, tinged 
with envy. 

To conceal the tremble in her voice Keineth had 
now to swallow very quickly. “All right, Peggy,” 
was all she answered and Peggy never knew how 
deeply her careless words had hurt her. 

Keineth had grown discouraged with her swim- 
ming. Somehow it was so easy when some one was 
with her, but she could never seem to muster the 
courage to dive off into the water the way the others 
did. And Daddy would be so disappointed! 

Mrs. Lee had given her careful instruction in 
the stroke — ^perhaps if she was alone, away from 
Billy’s roguish glance and the terror of his catching 
her ankle under water, she might feel more 
confidence. 

This thought still lingered in her mind when, in 
the afternoon, they went to the beach. Billy was 
already in the water; the faithful Pilot was digging 
on the beach for dog treasures. Because of the 
drizzling rain Mrs. Lee had not come down. 

While Barbara and Peggy were racing under 
water Keineth found it very easy to slip away. She 


no 


PILOT WINS A HOME 


chose a spot where a bend of the shore concealed her. 
She stood knee-deep in the water, going through the 
movements of the arm stroke, with a careful one, 
two, three. She put her small teeth tightly together — 
she would have confidence, she would go out deeper, 
throw herself calmly into the water in Peggy-fashion 
and swim off, one, two, three ! She would remember 
to breathe easily and keep her arms under the surface 
of the water! 

There was an indomitable will in the child. She 
did throw herself in, and, counting one, two, three, 
forgot her usual gasp of fright ; suddenly it seemed 
natural and as if she had always done it 1 She felt 
a delicious joy in the ease with which her stroke 
carried her ahead through the water. She wished 
Billy might see her now 1 Then, exhausted by her 
effort, triumphant and happy, she reached for a 
footing on the bottom. Her toe could not find it ! 
With a cry of terror she threw her arms wildly 
upward, involuntarily seeking for some hold ! Then 
she slipped, slipped down, fathoms and fathoms it 
seemed — ^a dreadful choking gripped her, like tight 
arms upon her chest! She tried to call, but the 
water only made a fearful gurgle in her throat ! She 
III 


4 


KEINETH 


wanted her father — he'd stop that terrible pain in 
her chest and take that grip from her throat! 

Suddenly she felt very, very tired and as if she 
would sleep when the pain was gone. Her body lifted 
slowly; her hand, flung upward, gripped something 
soft but firm in her clutch — ^the water splashed about 
her ! She thought it was her father ! He was pulling 
her away, then she seemed to go to sleep. 

When consciousness returned, Keineth found 
herself lying upon the beach wrapped in Barbara’s 
raincoat. Peggy was crying and Barbara, her face 
very white, was rubbing her hand. On her other 
side knelt Billy, the rain dripping from his bare arms, 
his face flushed as though from violent exercise. 
Behind him stood Pete, the man of all work in the 
community, who had been drawing gravel from the 
beach. 

''Darling!” cried Barbara. "Oh, are you all 
right ? ” 

Keineth slowly looked all around. Had it been 
some dream, then — wasn’t her Daddy there at all? 
Barbara had slipped an arm under her head and was 
holding it higher. It helped her breathe. 

" What was it? ” Keineth managed to whisper. 


1 12 





HER BODY LIFTED SLOWLY — THE WATER SPLASHED ABOUT HER 




PILOT WINS A HOME 


“ I’d never, never, never have forgiven myself,” 
Barbara was crying now. 

“ You almost drowned,” Peggy explained. Now 
that the danger was over she began to enjoy the 
excitement. 

“ And Pilot saved you ! ” Billy cried. 

“ We had just missed you and Billy had started 
up the shore when we heard your cry ! ” 

“And it didn’t take that dog two seconds to get 
out to you ! Just say he isn’t human! ” 

“ I thought it was Daddy,” Keineth whispered. 
“What, dear?” Barbara had not caught the 
words. “ You must keep very quiet, Ken. And 
Billy’s had his first aid case ! ” 

Pete clapped Billy on the shoulder. “ Wal, I 
jes’ calculate now that it was them gim-cracks Billy 
here put you through, missy, that brimg you to! ” 
“ I always wondered if I could do it,” Billy said 
with pardonable pride, “ and, say, that’ll mean a 
medal from the troop!” 

Alice had run home to tell Mrs. Lee of the 
accident. Together they had hurried down to the 
beach. With Pete’s help they lifted Keineth to the 
gravel wagon and, like a triumphal procession, 
8 113 


KEINETH 


moved slowly homeward. Mrs. Lee immediately 
tucked Keineth into bed with hot water bottles 
and blankets to check the chill that was creeping 
over her. 

“ She’ll be all right, I am sure,” Mrs. Lee whis- 
pered to the anxious children. Later the doctor 
came, left some powders and patted Keineth on the 
head. “A good sleep and quiet will fix up those 
nerves O. K. Then forget all about it.” 

He was quite right; the next morning Keineth, 
quite as well as ever, joined the family at breakfast. 
Though Mrs. Lee had warned them not to mention 
the accident to Keineth unnecessarily, Mr. Lee did 
pinch her cheek and say : “You losvt your head, 
didn’t you, little sport? If you’d just kept your 
arms down, now — but, if you go exploring strange 
beaches again you’ll remember, won’t you?” 

Peggy and Keineth, moved by a feeling of in- 
tense relief, suddenly caught hands under the table. 
For into both hearts had come the fear that Keineth’s 
mishap might end the swimming for the summer! 
And Keineth had not forgotten that, though it had 
ended sadly, for a very brief time she had mastered 
the stroke. 


PILOT WINS A HOME 


Mrs. Lee smiled down the table. “And I think 

Pilot has won a home! Except for him ” she 

stopped suddenly, her eyes bright with tears. 
“ William, bring home the finest collar you can find 
and to-night we will decorate our dog with all due 
honor ! ” 


CHAPTER XII 
A LETTER FROM DADDY 

“ Ken— a letter!” 

Billy rushed toward the garden waving a large 
square envelope over his head. 

Keineth and Peggy were weeding their flower 
bed. Keineth dropped her hoe quickly to seize the 
letter. 

“ It’s from Washington, and it’s got a seal on it 
like the seal of the United States ! ” exclaimed Billy. 

“ Oh, let me see 1 ” cried Peggy. 

Keineth had taken the letter. Looking from one 
to the other, she held it close to her. 

“I — I can’t — it’s from the President, I 

guess ” A wave of embarrassment seized her 

and she stopped short, wishing that she might run 
away with her treasure. 

“ The President — writing tO' you ! Oh, say ” 

Billy snorted in derision. 

Peggy, offended at Keineth’s shyness, turned her 
back upon her. 

ii6 


A LETTER FROM DADDY 


“ I don’t want to see your letter, anyway,” she 
said ungraciously. 

“ Oh, please — I’d love to show it, only — I prom- 
ised ” Then, as Peggy gave no sign of relent- 

ing, Keineth walked slowly toward the house with 
her letter. 

“ I think Keineth’s mean to have secrets,” and 
Peggy dug her hoe savagely into the ground. “ She 
acts so mysterious about her father and I’ll bet it 
isn’t anything at all ! ” 

“ But that letter was from the President, I guess ! 
Gee whiz, think of getting a letter really from him ! 
I wish I was Ken ! ’ 

“ It’s nothing ! Anyone can be President — I 
mean, any man ! ” 

“ Just the same, mother told me that some day 
we would be very proud of knowing Keineth’s 
father. She wouldn’t tell me any more. I’ll bet it 
would be awful interesting to know him! There’s 
something certainly queer about how no one knows 
where he is! I guess I’ll ask Ken to tell me just a 
little bit. I can keep a secret.” 

“ Well, you can know her old secret for all I 
care,” and Peggy started for the barn. 

117 


KEINETH 


Billy did not follow. He had thought of a plan. 
He would challenge Ken to a game of tennis. And 
he would let her beat him. Then he’d ask her very 
casually about her father and promise, on his scout’s 
honor, not to tell a soul! The plan seemed good. 
He’d wait for her to come down. 

In her room Keineth had opened the large white 
envelope. From inside she drew a sheet of paper 
upon which were written a few lines, and with it a 
blue envelope of very thin paper, addressed in her 
father’s familiar handwriting. With a little cry she 
caught it up and kissed it again and again. Before 
she broke its seal she read what was written on the 
sheet which had enclosed it. 

The few lines were signed “Faithfully, Woodrow 
Wilson.” They began, “ My dear little soldier girl,” 
and they told her that it was with great pleasure he 
had forwarded her letter to her father and now 
returned to her its answer. He called it an honor to 
serve them both and expressed the hope that some 
day he might make her acquaintance and tell her 
how deeply he admired and respected her father. 

Keineth merely glanced at the lines. What mat- 
tered it to her that they had been written by the 

ii8 


A LETTER FROM DADDY 

President of the United States! Did she not hold 
tightly in her fingers a letter from her Daddy? 

“ My precious child,” it began. Keineth had 
suddenly to brush her eyes in order to see the letters. 
“ Your letter found me at one of my many stopping 
places. It brought to me a breath of home. I shut 
myself in my room and read and reread it, and it 
seemed to bring back the old room and the chair 
that could always hold us both. I could hear your 
voice, too. I miss you terribly, little girl, but I 
thank God daily that you are well and happy and 
with good friends. 

“ I have travelled through many lands of which 
I will have much to tell you. I have been in the 
Far East — ^poor Tante would have wept with joy 
over the beauty of the Flowery Kingdom. I have 
bowed before enough emperors and kings to make 
my poor back ache. Do you remember how you 
used to rub the kinks out of it ? I have spent hours 
and hours with the great men of the world. I have 
seen wonderful beauty and glorious sunshine. ( How 
I’d like to ship some of it to old New York.) And 
I have seen ugly things, too. We shall have great 
times when we are together again, childy, telling one 


KEINETH 


another the stories of these days we have been parted. 
You shall tell me something first and then I will tell 
you. It will take us hours and days and weeks. 

“ Now I am going in my wanderings to other 
lands that are black with the horror of war. I shall 
have to witness the suffering it brings to the homes 
and I will be more glad than I can tell that my baby 
is far from its pain. 

“ I have learned in these wanderings of mine that 
it is in the children this old world must place its 
trust. That if they want a better government they 
must give to the little ones all that is pure and clean 
and honest and good and see to it that they are 
happy. I feel like shouting it from the housetops — 
‘ Make them happy ! ’ It doesn’t take much. 

“ I feel your big, wondering eyes on mine — ^you 
do not imderstand ! Ah, well, girlie, all I mean is — 
romp and play — ^build up a strong little body for that 
heart of yours — see things that are clean and good, 
and whatever the game is — play square! 

“ We cannot be grateful enough to the dear Lees 
for all they are doing for us. Try and return their 
kindness with loyalty. I will write later to Mrs. 
Lee in regard to the plans for the fall. Do whatever 


120 


A LETTER FROM DADDY 


she thinks best. You will stay with them until I 
return. Just when that will be I cannot tell now, 
but you must be brave. Your courage helps me, too, 
my dear. 

“ Sometimes, when my day’s work is done and I 
can put it from my mind, I close my eyes and dream 
— dream of the little home we will build when I 
return: build — not in the old Square, that is gone 
except to memory — but in some sunny, open spot 
where we can live and work together and lead useful 
lives. It is a beautiful castle as I see it in my 
dreamsi — ^and beautiful with love. 

“ I will send this letter with other papers to 
Washington and they will forward it to you. 

“ Good-by, little soldier — I salute you, my 
General. 

“ God keep you for 

“ Daddy.” 

The words rang through Keineth’s heart like a 
song. She longed to pour out her joy in music, but 
Billy’s voice came to her from below. 

“ Ken, Ken.” 

“ Yes, Billy.” 


I2I 


KEINETH 


“ Come on, I’ll play tennis with you ! Bet you 
can beat me, too ! ” 

Keineth suddenly remembered Peggy’s and 
Billy’s rudeness. Perhaps Billy was trying to make 
amends. She really wanted to be alone with her 
letter a little longer, but if Billy wanted her to play! 
She felt proud, too, that he had asked her. 

Billy found less difficulty than he had anticipated 
in letting Keineth win the set. In fact, deep in his 
heart, he was not sure he had “ let ” her. For 
Keineth, fired with the joy within her, played bril- 
liantly, flying over the court like a winged creature, 
returning Billy’s serves with a surprising quickness 
and strength that completely broke down his boyish 
confidence in himself. 

“ Thanks awfully — ^that was fun,” Keineth said 
as they sank down under a tree for a moment’s rest. 

Though his plan had worked very well so far, 
Billy now felt at a loss to know how he ought to 
proceed. So, accepting her thanks with a brief nod, 
he bolted straight to the point. 

“ Say, Ken, if you’ll tell me about your father I 
promise on my scout’s honor not to tell a soul ! And 
you ought to tell me anyway, for didn’t my dog save 


122 


A LETTER FROM DADDY, 

your life, and didn’t I give you first aid or you 
might’ve died ! ” 

“ Oh, Billy ! ” Keineth cried, then stopped short. 
Her heart warmed to Billy — they seemed almost like 
pals now ! He had preferred playing tennis with her 
than going off somewhere with the boys. And she 
did want more than anything else right then to talk 
about her daddy ; to tell how great he was and how 
he was visiting courts of Eastern lands. And she 
wanted to show Billy the letter from the President, 
it was in her pocket. And she knew if Billy said 
he’d never tell that he would not. 

But a soldier never swerves from duty and had 
not her father called her his “ General ” ? 

“ I — I can’t, Billy,” she finished. 

There was something so final in her voice and 
in the set of her lips that Billy, red with rage, rose 
quickly to his feet. 

“ I’ll bet you haven’t got any secret and you’re 
just making up to be smart and I’ll get even with 
you, baby ! And you didn’t beat me playing tennis, 

for I let you, anyway! You wait ” and, venge- 

fully, Billy strode away, leaving an unhappy little 
girl sitting alone under the tree. 

123 


KEINETH 


Peggy met Billy on the road. Peggy was in 
search of Keineth. Her nature was too happy to 
long nurse a grievance. She didn’t care if Keineth 
did have a secret! And she had wonderful news, 
too! 

But Billy’s morose bearing stirred her curiosity. 

“ Did she tell you, Billy? ” she asked. 

“ I’ll bet she hasn’t got any secret that’s worth 
knowing! And she needn’t say she beat me at 
tennis, either.” 

“ Oh, Billy Lee, you let her beat so’s she’d tell 
you! I’m just she didn’t ! I guess girls never 
tell anything they’ve promised not to — even if they 
are girls ! ” 

In great scorn she ran from the disconsolate 
Billy. She had spied Keineth alone under the tree. 

“ Ken — ^Ken ! Great news ! ” Peggy rushed 
toward her. “We are going camping with Ricky — 
you and me — next week ! Hurray ! ” 


CHAPTER XIII 

CAMPING 

Keineth learned that Ricky was Peggy’s gym- 
nasium teacher. Her real name was Fredericka 
Grimball, but to “ her girls ” she was always known 
as Ricky. The camp was among the hills ten miles 
from Fairview. And during the vacation months 
Ricky took her girls there in groups of twenty. With 
their play she gave them instruction in scoutcraft. 

“ We go for tramps into the woods and she tells 
us stories of the birds and trees. I never knew until 
she told me that there are male and female trees, and 
flowers and all the things that grow ; did you know 
it, Ken? And we found a weasel, last summer — 
it was almost tame. We’re going to learn signalling, 
too ; perhaps this winter Ricky will let us form a 
troop and join the Girl Scouts.” 

Keineth, with wide-open eyes, was trying to fol- 
low Peggy’s incoherent description of the camp life 
they were to begin on the morrow. Back in her 
mind was a tiny doubt as to whether she would 

I2S 


KEINETH 


enjoy twenty girls — all strangers ! But she would 
fight this shyness and do whatever Peggy did. 

“ We sleep right out of doors when it is clear. 
The woods smell so good and there are all sorts of 
funny sounds as if all the bugs and things were 
having parties.” 

“ Oh-h, I wonder if I’ll like it!” and Keineth 
shivered with pleasurable dread. 

“ We paddle in canoes on a little lake that’s like 
a mill-pond. It’s awfully shallow and the water 
is so clear you can see right through it, and we ride 
horseback, too! I’m a patrol leader,” Peggy finished 
with pride. She folded the last middy blouse neatly 
into a wicker suitcase. Their luggage consisted, of 
bloomers, blouses, bathing-suits and blankets. 

“ Easy to remember — all B’s,” Mrs. Lee had 
laughed. 

Mr. Lee drove them to the camp. “ Come back 
with some muscle in these arms of yours and a few 
more freckles on your nose,” he said to Keineth, 
pinching her cheek affectionately. 

“ Camp Wachita ” — the girls had nicknamed it 
Camp Wish-no-more — was nestled in the hills with 
the tiny lake at its front door and a dense woodland 
126 


CAMPING 


at its back. Sleeping tents were built in a semi- 
circle about the central building, in which were the 
living-rooms. On a grassy level stretch close to the 
water was the out-of-door gymnasium and beyond 
that the boathouse and dock to which several gaily- 
painted canoes were fastened. 

The family at Camp Wachita consisted of Martha 
Washington Jones, the colored cook; Bonsey, her 
twelve-year-old son, who very occasionally made 
himself useful about the camp; Captain O'Leary, a 
Spanish War Veteran by title and by occupation 
caretaker of the horses and boats; Miky, the little 
Irish terrier, and Jim Crow, who had been brought, 
the summer before, to the camp hospital from the 
woodland to receive first aid for a broken wing, and 
had refused to leave the family. 

Keineth had little difficulty in making friends 
with the other girls. There seemed to be among 
them such a jolly spirit of comradeship that she 
found it very easy to call them Jessie and Nellie and 
Kate, and never once wondered at their quickly 
adopting Peggy’s familiar Ken.” She thought 
that Peggy must have known them all very well and 
127 


KEINETH 


was surprised when Peggy told her that there were 
only three of her friends among them. 

“ But we’re all Ricky’s girls, you see,” she ex- 
plained, as though that was all that was necessary 
to create a firm bond of loyalty and friendship among 
them. 

“ Ricky,” this captain of girls, was a tall, straight, 
broad-shouldered woman of twenty-five. The sun- 
niness of her smile, the firmness of her jaw and the 
all-understanding warmth of her dark eyes told of 
the character which made her a leader of others 
and a spirit beloved among them all. 

Each new day of the camp life brought to 
Keineth some new experience, thrilling in its strange- 
ness to the little girl. She had learned to love going 
to sleep with the great, star-lit vault of the sky 
enveloping her; the singing of the “ bugs,” as Peggy 
had put it, was fairy music to her ears; she had 
conquered her first terror of the shell-like canoes 
and now could paddle with confidence, even ventur- 
ing alone upon the shallow water. And to her own 
surprise she was enjoying the companionship of the 
other girls ! 

Among them was one named Stella Maybeck. 

128 


CAMPING 


Stella was not an attractive girl — she was too tall 
and too thin, her voice was loud and her manners 
a little careless. She had big, dark eyes with a 
hungfry look in their depths. She adored Ricky and 
showed a preference for Keineth’s company. At 
first Keineth felt a little repelled by the girl’s rough 
ways, but gradually she grew to feel that beneath 
them was a warm, kind heart and that it was, per- 
haps, shyness that often made Stella’s manner 
disagreeable. 

They walked together on the tramps into the 
woods and Keineth enjoyed the fund of knowledge 
the other girl seemed to have concerning all the 
little woodland creatures and their ways. 

“ I don’t see why you like to be with Stella 
Maybeck,” Peggy had said to her one day. “ I 
think she is horrid ! ” she finished unkindly. 

“ Why, Peggy ! ” Keineth frowned. It was 
very unfair in Peggy to speak in this way concern- 
ing one of the other girls. Keineth did not suspect 
that perhaps a little jealousy prompted Peggy’s 
ungraciousness. 

This little cloud was to grow over the whole 
camp. And in the second week Ricky’s girls learned 
9 129 


KEINETH 

a lesson of greater value to them than all the scout- 
craft they loved. 

Twice a week the vegetable man came to the camp 
with fruit and vegetables. These the girls placed in 
the storehouse, one of them carefully checking off 
the purchases as they did so. One morning some 
oranges were reported missing. Ricky paid little 
attention to the incident. The next day one of the 
girls came to her and announced that a ring had 
been taken from her sleeping tent. Although dis- 
turbed, Miss Grimball gently rebuked the girl for 
having disobeyed the camp rules in bringing jewelry 
to it and sent her away, bidding her speak to no one 
of her loss. 

Then Miss Grimball’s silver purse containing 
ten dollars in bills was taken from her desk! 

Like a flash the story spread through the camp. 
The girls gathered in an excited group. Keineth 
and Stella, with arms locked, stood together. From 
the other side of the group Peggy saw them. The 
jealousy that had been slumbering within her heart 
suddenly gripped her. 

“ Well, I think I could guess who did it, all right, 
and I just think it’s a shame for anyone like that to 


130 


CAMPING 


dare to come to Ricky’s camp ! ” It was not neces- 
sary to do more than fix her gaze indignantly upon 
Stella Maybeck. With a little gasp Stella turned 
and ran into her tent. The others pressed closer to 
Peggy. 

“ Oh, do you think so? ” they whispered in awed 
voices. 

“ Peggy ! ” cried Keineth, imploringly. 

“ I’m not going to say another word,” Peggy 
answered, perhaps a little frightened at what she had 
done. 

The girls waited breathlessly for Miss Grimball 
to take some action in the matter. Each felt that the 
disgrace must be wiped from the happy camp life. 

At noon Ricky’s whistle sounded. The girls 
assembled on the gymnasium ground. Their captain 
stood before them, clear-eyed, smiling at them all 
with her usual confidence. Stella, with Keineth, had 
joined the others and stood in the background. 

“ I think you all know what has happened. I 
am disturbed, but I will not suspect one of my girls. 
All I want to say is this^ — so great is my trust in your 
loyalty, in your honor, and in your sense of what is 
square — if one of you, through an unfortunate yield- 
131 


KEINETH 


ing to temptation, has taken these things that have 
been lost, they will be returned, because you are 
girls of honor. So I am not worrying. Now, 
please do not talk of the matter among yourselves.” 

The routine of the day went on. The girls 
avoided Stella; only Keineth kept close to her side. 
Keineth longed to pour out to Stella her confidence 
in her innocence and her indignation at Peggy, but a 
certain pride in Stella’s manner forbade it ; she could 
not find the right words, so she simply occasionally 
squeezed Stella’s hand ! 

In this way two unhappy days passed. Then 
on the third morning Peggy, crossing the path lead- 
ing to the kitchen, saw Jim Crow scurrying toward 
the wood with a spoon in his mouth! On tip-toe 
she followed him. Turning off from the trail near 
the edge of the woodland, he stood for a moment 
as though listening, then dropped his treasure into 
the hollow trunk of a dead tree ! 

And there Peggy, following the rascal, found 
the oranges, the ring, and Ricky’s silver purse! 

In that moment when Peggy stood alone among 
the trees, the stolen things in her hands, she learned 
a lesson that she could never forget! She walked 
132 


CAMPING 


slowly back to Miss GrimbaH’s office and told her 
the story of Jim and of her own unjust accusation 
of Stella. 

“ We should have suspected Jim, the villain,” 
Ricky laughed. “Another chapter in scoutcraft, 
Peggy. Will you go, my dear, and tell Stella? ” 
Then she gently put her hand upon Peggy’s head. 
“ Judge not, my dear,” and, leaning, she kissed her. 

Peggy rushed off in search of Stella. She found 
her sitting on the dock, a picture of misery, Keineth 
by her side. 

“ Stella, I was a wicked, wicked girl ! It was 
Jim' Crow stole the things, and I found them in an 
old tree and I wouldn’t blame you if you never for- 
gave me! I think the reason I was so horrid was 
because I was just jealous that Ken loved you more 

than she did me^ ■” For lack of breath Peggy 

stopped, her soul clean from her confession. 

A great joy came into Stella’s dark eyes. She 
held out her hand and Peggy caught it in a tight grip. 

“ Now I’m going to call all the girls together and 
tell them the whole story and that I’m just terribly 
ashamed.” She ran from them, her hands to her 
mouth, loudly giving the call of the camp. 

133 


KEINETH 


There was great rejoicing at Camp-Wish-no- 
more. The cloud of suspicion had lifted. The girls 
could not be nice enough to Stella, and for the first 
time she seemed to lose her shyness and awkward- 
ness among them. Then Ricky decided that, in order 
to entirely forget the whole thing, they would go on 
an all-night hike to the old mill on Cobble Hill. 

“ Hooray — ^hooray! ” went up from eager 
throats. 

“ Three cheers for Stella ! ” 

“ Three cheers for Peggy! ” they cried again. 

“ Down with Jim Crow ! ” 

That night, under the stars, Keineth snuggled 
close to Peggy. She had asked to be Peggy’s blanket 
mate. 

“ You’re all right. Peg,” she whispered. Billy- 
fashion, “ and I do love you most of all 1 ” 


CHAPTER XIV 
THE TENNIS TOURNAMENT 

“ Sport’s Week ” had begun at the Shore Club. 
The excitement of it gripped the Lee family. Each 
talked of the game in which he or she was most in- 
terested and no one listened to the other. Barbara, 
with an absorbed air, mentally played the shots she 
would make when on Friday she would meet in the 
final round of match play for the championship title 
her old foe, Carol Day. Peggy had no thought for 
anything but the swimming contest. Mr. Lee was 
chairman of the committee on arrangements and 
spent most of his time at the telephone. Mrs. Lee 
did her part in the decorating of the club-house and 
went about with her arms full of gay bunting and 
her mouth full of pins. 

And Keineth shared the excitement! For she 
had qualified in the children’s tennis tournament and 
would play in the doubles and had drawn Billy for 
her partner! 

It was her first real contest ! Secretly she shiv- 
135 


KEINETH 


ered with fright but outwardly tried to appear calm 
like Peggy. All the day before the tennis matches 
began she went about with her racquet in her hand 
as though to accustom her trembling fingers to its 
hold. 

Though Billy, since the day he had tried to make 
Keineth confide in him the story of her father’s 
absence, had maintained toward her a scornful in- 
difference, he had accepted her as a partner because 
there was no alternative. But he managed to convey 
to her that he considered it an unfair indignity that 
he should be so handicapped. And he talked entirely 
of the paddling races. 

However, Keineth could not be discouraged. In 
her mind was one thought only — they mmt win! 
For, each day, in her room she was writing a careful 
account of all that happened to send to her Daddy, 
and failure could have no part in the story. 

And in the very first match they defeated Molly 
Sawyer and Joe Cary ! 

Margaret Dale, playing with Charlie Myers had, 
after a hard game, beaten Grace Schuyler and Merton 
Day. Then Keineth and Billy played against them. 
It was a close match; the courts were circled by 
136 


THE TENNIS TOURNAMENT 


an interested crowd of onlookers. Though Billy had 
had to play with all his skill to meet Charlie Myers’ 
strength of volley, he knew that Keineth had more 
than done her part, too. 

“ She played way over her head,” he answered 
sullenly to the praise his family bestowed upon her. 

One more set put them in the final match against 
Jim Downer and his sister Helen. A taste of vic- 
tory had given to Keineth a poise that steadied her 
in her game; this matching of strength, skill and 
quickness — something she had never known before — 
had developed a surprising confidence in herself. 
Her joy was not in the defeat of their opponents, 
rather in her own mastery of all those things which 
for so long she had been trying to learn ! 

“ Good luck to you, kiddies,” Mr. Lee had said 
to them at the breakfast table. “ Play your best and 
then you won’t mind if you are defeated. And if 
the other fellows play better, don’t think up any 
excuses — it’s something to be good losers ! ” 

In the brief moment of waiting before the final 
match began, Keineth, standing quietly near the 
courts, thought how different she was from the funny 
little girl who had come to Overlook two months 
137 


KEINETH 

before. She knew now what her father had meant 
when he had told her that that old life, with him and 
Xante in the old house, had cheated her out of the 
other things children had. He had been right. He 
woxild be pleased, now, to know the part she was 
taking with the others. 

The judges called the match; Keineth caught her 
breath and ran on to the court. She gave one whis- 
pered word to Billy. 

“ We’ve got to win! ” 

Billy had not enjoyed Keineth’ s sudden rise into 
fame. He felt less tolerant and the old grudge 
flamed into being. If they won now — and everyone 
said they would — they’d all think it was Keineth 
that had won it. They’d make an awful fuss over 
her — they always did over girls — and there’d be no 
living with either her or Peggy. He could throw 
the game, just fall down on one or two returns arid 
no one would know the difference! He felt very 
sure of winning the paddling races and what did he 
care about the tennis match, an3rway? — it’d be dif- 
ferent if they were the real matches, but they were 
just for children. These thoughts ran through his 
138 


THE TENNIS TOURNAMENT 


mind as he swung his racquet backward and forward 
in the air, a heavy scowl wrinkling his face. 

And Keineth’s confident “ We’ve got to win ” 
had been the last drop in his cup of annoyance. 

The first two games were slow, a little volleying 
and a good many “ outs.” Someone called from 
the gallery, “ Warm up ! ” Keineth threw her head 
back with an answering smile, for she recognized 
Mr. Lee’s voice 

Their opponents won the third game against a 
thirty. That spurred Keineth ; the fourth game was 
faster with some hot volleying and pretty returns 
and won by Keineth and Billy in a quickly mounting 
score. Excited, Keineth did not notice that Billy 
had not returned one or two balls with his usual 
skill. 

The next, a deuce game, was hotly contested. 
Her face ablaze with interest, Keineth held her little 
body tensely poised on one toe, ready for instant 
action. The faces of the crowd around her blurred 
into nothing — there seemed only left in her small 
world those two beyond the net ! 

The next game was bewildering. Keineth played 
desperately, but they had only won thirty points when 
139 


KEINETH 


the others made the game! The set stood four to 
two in Keineth’s favor, but their opponents were 
playing stronger with each game. 

In the seventh game Billy dropped off shame- 
lessly. He was never quite ready. Before Keineth 
realized the situation the others had won and won 
easily ! 

“ Billy ! ” Keineth whispered imploringly. The 
indifferent look on Billy’s face struck terror to her 
heart. What was the matter with him.? 

The next game Keineth won alone — if Billy could 
not play she’d play for him I Her little teeth, clenched 
tight together, gleamed white through her parted 
lips. The crimson of her cheeks mounted into her 
fair hair. 

“ What a picture ! ” Mrs.. Lee whispered to her 
husband. She was not thinking of the game at all. 
“ What a spirit ! Think, William, what that can 
mean in this world when the child’s grown up ! ” 

“ That’s just why this sort of sport is good for 
them,” Mr. Lee whispered back. “ But what is the 
matter with Billy ? ” 

That is what Keineth wondered, too. They had 
won five games — they must win the next and set! 

140 


THE TENNIS TOURNAMENT 


Walking close to Billy she confronted him, her face 
ablaze. For just a moment they looked hard into 
one another’s eyes; not a boy and girl, the one 
proudly conscious of his boyhood and two years’ 
difference in age, the other a very young and all- 
admiring girl — ^but just two mortals contesting to- 
gether against two others. 

And at last they, Keineth and Billy, met on 
equal ground — Keineth had proven her mettle — let 
Billy show his! Keineth’s clear, straightforward 
gaze made Billy drop his eyes in sudden shame. 

“ Play square,” she said sternly. 

And Billy played square! Their opponents had 
not a chance! 

“ Well, Billy did wake up,” some one said and 
some one else added: “If they’d lost it would have 
been his fault. That Randolph girl played a corking 
game for her age ! ” 

They had won the tennis tournament ! Keineth 
did not enjoy half so much the silver cup they 
placed in her hands as she did Peggy’s delight and 
Mr. Lee’s hearty handclasp of congratulation. The 
young people carried them off to luncheon at the 


KEINETH 

club-house, where they made merry far into the 
afternoon. 

That evening Billy, with a very serious face, 
approached his father, where he sat alone on the 
veranda. 

“ Dad, I’ve withdrawn my name from the paddle 
races ! ” 

“ What’s wrong, son? ” 

“ I’m not a good sport — that’s why,” Billy an- 
swered with his usual frankness. “ I had a sort 
of grudge against Keineth because she wouldn’t tell 
me about her father and I’d vowed to get even and I 
just laid down on that tennis game — ^until she made 
me ashamed ! ” 

“ But she did make you ashamed, Billy ? ” 

“ Yes — ^she told me to play square and I just 
thought then that no one would ever have to tell 
me to play square more than once! ” 

Mr. Lee laid his arm across the boy’s shoulder. 

“ Laddie — ^these games we play teach us a lot, 
don’t they? There is something in them more than 
fun and more than the health they give! You’ve 
learned a motto to-day that you can pin on your 
142 


THE TENNIS TOURNAMENT 


shield when you go out to meet the other matches 
life offers! ” 

“ You can just bet I’ll always try to play square! 
And I’m going now to find Ken and tell her she’s a 
brick!” 

Mr. Lee watched the boy disappear. Though a 
smile hovered about his lips, his eyes were serious — 
the cigar between his fingers had quite gone out. 

“ May he keep that spirit all through life,” he 
was thinking. 


CHAPTER XV 
NOT ON THE PROGRAM! 

Keineth, a little tired after the strain of the 
tennis match, thought it much more fun to watch 
the others. Billy had gone into the paddling races, 
and no one but Mr. Lee and Keineth knew that it 
was because Keineth had begged him — and he had 
won and Keineth had been the first to examine the 
wrist watch he had received as an award. And on 
Friday the entire family waited eagerly near the 
eighteenth green of the golf course for Barbara and 
Carol Day to play up in the final game for the golf 
championship ! 

Keineth and Peggy held hands tightly in their 
excitement. 

“ Oh, I can tell by Barb’s walk she’s ahead,” 
Peggy cried as the two players, their caddies and a 
small gallery, appeared around the corner of the 
wood that screened the seventeenth green. 

“ She was two down at the turn and Carol was 
playing par golf,” someone volunteered. 

144 


NOT ON THE PROGRAM! 


“ What does down at the turn mean? ” whispered 
Keineth. 

“ The turn’s at the end of the ninth hole and 
a-I-a-s, down means Barb was behind. Pooh, she 
always plays better when she’s down!” 

A man had just returned from the fifteenth tee. 
“ They were dormie at the sixteenth,” the girls 
heard him say. 

“ What queer words they do use in golf ! I 
thought dormie was a window ! ” 

“ Oh, Ken,” giggled Peggy, “ you mean dormer 
and it’s dormie when one player is just as many 
holes ahead as there are more holes to play. Good 
gracious ! ” her face fell, “ that means that Barbara 
will have to win these three holes and she always 
slices on the eighteenth ! ” 

“ She won’t this time, Peggy ! That girl’s like 
steel in a match ! ” a man nearby broke in. 

“ She’s driving first ! ” Billy cried. “ Oh, look — 
look — look ! P-e-ach-y ! ” 

Breathlessly they watched the two players ad- 
vance toward the green. Barbara had outdriven her 
opponent but she topped her second. Carol Day, 
playing a brassie, put her ball well up. Barbara 
145 


10 


KEINETH 


recovered on her third shot, carried the bunker which 
guarded the green twenty yards from it, and laid 
her ball on the edge of the green. Carol’s third 
caught the top of the bunker, shot into the air and 
dropped back into the sand pit ! 

“ Oh-h ! ” breathed Peggy delightedly into 
Keineth’s ear. She knew it was the worst bunker 
on the course. 

But difficulties only made Carol Day play the 
better. She studied the shot for several moments 
while Barbara and the gallery watched with tense 
interest. Then they saw her lift her niblick slowly, 
her head bent; a cloud of sand raised, the ball 
cleared the bunker’s top, dropped upon the green, 
rolled a few feet and rested within an easy putt of 
the cup ! 

The gallery applauded. It was a splendid shot, 
one of the kind that ought to win a match for its 
player. Even Keineth cried out in generous praise 
of the play. 

Peggy gripped Keineth’s hand so hard that it 
hurt. 

“ Steady, steady, there. Barb,” Mr. Lee 
muttered. 


146 


NOT ON THE PROGRAM! 


Barbara walked slowly to her ball. Her eyes 
were lowered, she did not glance at the familiar 
faces about the green. Her next shot demanded the 
utmost skill, care and steadiness she could command. 
Of them all she was the coolest. She must run down 
her putt to win the match ! 

Peggy suddenly shut her eyes that she could not 
see what happened. The others saw Barbara, with 
an easy movement, line her putt. The ball rolled 
slowly over the clipped turf, dead straight to the 
hole — ^closer, closer, hung for one fraction of a 
second on the rim of the cup and then with a thud 
that was like music, dropped in ! Barbara was the 
champion of the women players of the club! 

“ Why, it almost made me sick,” Peggy confided 
to Keineth afterwards. “ I will be a wreck when 
this week is over! And oh, if I can only win the 
life-saving medal to-morrow! Think of it, four 
prizes in the Lee family! There will be no living 
with us. I don’t care a straw for the cups they 
give — it’s that little bit of a bronze medal I want. 
There’s going to be a man here from Washington 
to give it to the winner — one of the Volunteer Life- 
saving Association. And that medal’s got to go 
147 


KEINETH 

right here,” and defiantly she struck her hand against 
her breast. 

‘‘ I just can't wait,” Keineth sighed in a tragic 
manner. 

The last day is most fun of all,” Peggy 
explained. 

How can we ever settle down into calm 
living?” 

Huh — fast enough ! Pve got to begin review- 
ing English. I have a condition to make up.” 

“And I want to work on my music,” cried 
Keineth, suddenly conscience-smitten. 

“ Mother says that to-morrow night we'll wind 
up with a supper on the beach. It's lots jollier than 
the dinner dance at the Club and we're too young to 
go to that, anyway. Barb could go if she wanted 

to, but she'd rather have the fun at the beach. We 

\ 

fry bacon and roast corn and mother makes cocoa 
and then we sing. Oh, dear, won't it be awful to 
grow old and not do those things ? ” 

Together they sighed mightily at such a prospect ! 
For the last day of the Sports Week there was a 
program of fun that began immediately after break- 
fast and lasted through the day. All the club mem- 
bers gathered on the beach where gaily-decorated 
148 


NOT ON THE PROGRAM! 

booths had been built. From these lemonade and 
sandwiches were served continuously. The motor 
boats, canoes and skiffs, their flags flying, made 
bright splashes of color against the green water. 
Stakes, topped with flags, marked the course for the 
swimming races. The judges were taken out on one 
of the larger motor boats. 

Keineth had never seen anything quite like it. 
To her it seemed like a chapter from some story and 
a story strange and exciting! 

The committee had arranged games and races 
for the very little youngsters so that during the 
morning the beach front was astir with them — 
bright-eyed, bobbed-haired, starched little girls and 
tanned, bare-legged boys, trying vainly to elude the 
watchful care of the mothers and nurse-girls, who 
made a background for the pretty scene. 

The life-saving contest followed the swimming 
races. Four others besides Peggy had entered: 
Molly Sawyer, Helen Downer, Mary Freeman and 
Gladys Day. 

Keineth had never watched a contest of this sort 
before. She cried out in alarm when she saw a 
man, fully dressed, at a signal totter off the deck 
149 


KEINETH 

of the judges’ motor boat. Someone next to her 
laughed. 

“ That’s just pretend — ^he’s an expert swimmer! 
It’s Mary Freeman’s turn! Watch her!” 

Keineth saw Mary detach herself from a small 
group, rush into the water tearing off her blouse 
as she did so. Then something went wrong — 
Mary seemed to make no headway toward the man, 
the judges blew a whistle, the man who had jumped 
overboard climbed back into the boat; there was 
some laughter which others quickly frowned down. 

Peggy had drawn last place in the contest. When 
Keineth saw the others fail, one after another, she 
glanced at Peggy with nervous anxiety. But Peggy 
stood, outwardly calm, the picture of confidence, her 
eyes fastened upon the judges’ boat, waiting for her 
signal. 

Another man fell overboard ; to Keineth he looked 
like a giant ! She saw Peggy spring forward — in a 
flash her blouse was off and she had thrown it back- 
ward over her head. She was swimming and Keineth 
knew that as she swam she was unbuttoning and 
kicking off her shoes and her skirt. An encouraging 
shout went up as she moved rapidly forward, her 
150 


NOT ON THE PROGRAM ! 


head under water, first one straight, strong ann, then 
the other, shooting out and ahead ! 

Of¥ at a little distance the judges’ boat was chug- 
ging. From the beach the spectators, breathless, 
could see a stmggle in the water. Then, where for 
a moment there had been nothing visible, they saw 
Peggy’s head ; saw her making for shore swimming 
on her back with strong leg strokes, one arm en- 
circling the man’s head, her grip holding his chin 
and nostrils out of water and pinioning his arms so 
that his struggles could not drag her down. 

A shout went up from the beach front — louder 
and louder ; the motor boats blew their sirens. 
Keineth ran to the water’s edge that she might be 
the first to greet the proud young swimmer. 

Willing hands helped Peggy pull the rescued man 
upon the sand where, the water dripping from her 
shoulders, Peggy gave “ first aid.” After several 
moments, marked by a big, sunburned man whom 
Keineth learned afterwards was the man from' Wash- 
ington, the victim was pronounced saved, rose to 
his feet and was the first to shake Peggy’s hand! 

“ Why, it was so real that it seemed awful funny 
to see him just get up like that,” Keineth giggled 


KEINETH 


afterwards, when she had a moment alone with her 
Peggy. 

“ Well — it wasn’t any easy thing to bring him 
in! Why, he struggled just as much as though he 
was really drowning 1 But, oh, Ken — Ken, I’ve won 
my medal ! ” 

Later the children went back to the house to 
prepare the picnic. They trooped up the road, an 
excited group ; Keineth and Peggy in advance. 

As they came nearer to Overlook a strange sight 
met their eyes. They stopped short. 

For there on the gravel drive, its high-powered 
engine snorting and puffing, a rigid, uniformed figure 
at the wheel, stood Aunt Josephine’s bright yellow 
car! 


CHAPTER XVI 


AUNT JOSEPHINE 

“ It’s Aunt Josephine! ” cried Keineth. 

“ Oh, dear, she’ll spoil the fun I ” 

Keineth wished the ground would open wide and 
swallow her up, so deep was her dismay. Never in 
her life had she so hated that yellow monster and 
Kingston’s rigid back! And yes, the black-robed 
figure in the back was Celeste ! 

“ Oh, dear,” echoed Alice. 

“ Maybe she has some word from father.” The 
thought lent wings to Keineth’s feet — she flew over 
the ground, Peggy following closely, a most curious 
sight for Aunt Josephine’s eyes, with her wet bath- 
ing-suit and her blue and white bathrobe flying out 
behind ! 

No, Aunt Josephine had no news of Keineth’s 
father! She was on a motor trip and had stopped 
at Fairview. She was quite the same Aunt Josephine, 
beautifully gowned in a linen dress whose trimmings 
matched the stylish little hat she wore on her head. 
153 


KEINETH 


She rose from the wicker chair on the veranda, 
where she sat with Mrs. Lee, to greet the children. 
Keineth felt her critical glance wander from her to 
the others even while she was answering her aunt’s 
questions. 

Mrs. Lee read the consternation behind the chil- 
dren’s polite greetings, for in her sweet voice she 
broke in: 

“ I have been asking Mrs. Winthrop to join us 
to-night in our beach frolic — ^you girlies must urge 
her!” 

“ Oh, please do ! ” they cried together. 

Aunt Josephine did not seem to hear them. She 
was looking very hard at Keineth. “ She does look 
well,” she admitted; “ I suppose the quiet life here 
has been good for her.” She spoke directly to 
Keineth and the child felt in her tone the mild dis- 
approval she knew so well. “ I am on my way 
through to the Yellowstone, child. I thought, per- 
haps, I might pick you up and take you along, but 
you are so freckled that you are a sight I ” Then, 
as though she recalled the beach supper and the 
children’s invitation, she added, apologetically, “ It 
1 54 


AUNT JOSEPHINE 

is very kind, but I am a little out of the habit of such 
things ! ” 

“ Hateful thing — ^how can she be Ken’s aunt ! ” 
Peggy was thinking resentfully, for she had seen a 
hurt look creep into Keineth’s eyes. 

Mrs. Lee’s face wore its most cordial smile. She 
laid her hand upon Aunt Josephine’s arm. 

“ That’s just why I like to go to picnics and 
things — it is easy to get out of the habit of fun ! Do 
send your man away and join us! It will be a 
great treat to know our Keineth’s aunt a little 
better.” 

Now what neither Keineth nor Peggy, nor even 
Mrs. Lee could guess was that beneath the folds of 
expensive linen and lace and dainty pleatings of 
rose silk was a heart that was just hungry because — 
years and years before — it had forgotten “ how to 
have fun ! ” The happy faces of the children, freckled 
though they were, the simplicity of the pretty home, 
the flowers blooming so riotously and gaily all about, 
the light that lay deep in Mrs. Lee’s eyes roused a 
longing very strange to Aunt Josephine! Perhaps 
if she had had youngsters of her own she might 
never have been the kind of an Aunt Josephine she 
155 


KEINETH 


was — tyrannized over by a Fido and a Celeste and a 
Kingston ! 

“ I will come,” Aunt Josephine decided so sud- 
denly that they were startled. “ Keineth, dear, 
please tell Celeste to come to me.” 

Celeste was instructed to unpack a warm coat 
and to bring a robe. Then she and Kingston were 
told that they might drive back to town, to return 
later for Mrs. Winthrop. 

Mrs. Lee carried Aunt Josephine off to the tiny 
guest room while the children flew toward the pantry 
to make ready the picnic baskets. 

Vaguely Keineth felt worried, as though, in some 
way or other, she was to blame for this unwelcome 
addition to the party. But Peggy, joining them in 
middy blouse and bloomers, reassured her in an 
excited whisper. 

“ It’ll be such fun just to see how she’ll act ! 
Oh, I do wish that funny maid and that awful 
leather-man were going, too! Do you suppose she 
can ever eat a bacon sandwich without a fork ? ” 

But Aunt Josephine did eat one without a fork 
and then ate another. She sat on a rock, her pretty 
linen all crumpled and mussed, a great deal of sand 
156 


AUNT JOSEPHINE 

in her shoes, and balanced a paper plate on her lap 
and laughed, a rippling jolly laugh that Keineth had 
never heard before. She made Keineth and Peggy 
sit one on each side of her and. tell her of all they 
had done during the summer. 

When the last marshmallow had been toasted and 
the pans scoured and put away in the baskets, the 
picnickers gathered about the dying bonfires for a 
“sing-song.” This always included all the songs 
they loved best, the songs Mr. and Mrs. Lee had 
known in their youth and the songs of the present 
day. And Aunt Josephine’s rich contralto rang 
above the others. 

“ Why, I haven’t sung like this since I can re- 
member,” she laughed. The children were just 
finishing, “ There’s a long, long trail a-winding, into 
the land o’ my dreams ! ” 

In the dim light Keineth was studying her aunt’s 
face. Perhaps she had often been unkind in her 
thoughts ; she might hdve known that Aunt Josephine 
must be very, very nice or she couldn’t have been 
her father’s sister ! She slipped her hand into her 
aunt’s and felt a warm pressure return her clasp. 

When Mrs. Lee began “ This is the End of a 
157 


KEINETH 


Perfect Day ” the children knew that the fun was 
over. They were glad to go home, for it had been a 
strenuous and exciting week. 

When the good-nights were said Aunt Josephine 
drew Keineth toward her. 

“ May I keep' her up a little longer — I would like 
to have a little talk.” 

A dread seized Keineth’s heart, for she recalled 
her aunt’s words concerning the Yellowstone. She 
might have to go with Aunt Josephine and Celeste 
and Kingston, after all. 

Aunt Josephine sat down by the lamp, very 
straight, the way she always sat when she had some- 
thing important on her mind. Mrs. Lee sank back 
among the pillows on the divan and Mr. Lee pulled 
his chair closer to the window and lighted his pipe. 

“ I cannot tell you,” Aunt Josephine began, “ how 
glad I am to have become acquainted with you all. 
I feel better about Keineth.” 

A silence followed this. Very troubled, Keineth 
glanced at Mrs. Lee, to find her smiling. 

“ You know I did not approve of the way my 
brother just turned her over to almost strangers. It 
seemed as if she ought to be with me. I would have 
is8 


AUNT JOSEPHINE 

sent her to a camp in Maine — a very fine camp for 
girls — and then, perhaps had her with me at the 
seashore.” 

Aunt Josephine paused as though waiting for 
Mrs. Lee to say something. And Mrs. Lee said 
quietly : 

“ I think she has been happy here.” 

“ I came this way intending to steal her for this 
Yellowstone trip', though perhaps she’d better not 
go.” Keineth put her hand to her face involun- 
tarily as though to cover the shameless freckles. 
“ But I feel that I ought to talk over with you — 
well, the plans for her school in the fall.” Keineth 
swept a frightened glance toward Mrs. Lee. Aunt 
Josephine went on in the voice she always used when 
doing her duty : “ Miss Edgecombe has a very select 
school for girls a few blocks from me in New York. 
I know Miss Edgecombe well and she is holding a 
place open for Keineth. I feel she is a very suitable 
person to train a child. You know,” with a tone of 
apology, “ my brother had no sense at all in bringing 
up the girl ! He left everything to that queer old 
governess.” 


IS9 


KEINETH 


Mrs. Lee suddenly sat up very straight on the 
divan. 

“ When Keineth came to us she had to learn to 
be like other children. Yes, she had been shut up 
too much with that very good governess ; her little 
brain had grown faster than her body. It’s her 
body’s turn now, the brain can wait. Mr. Randolph 
said that he wished her to remain with us until he 
returned. Keineth and I have a plan of our own 
for the fall, to play and work on our music.” She 
smiled at Keineth. 

Aunt Josephine hesitated as though she could 
not find the right words to express what she felt. 
“ I thought it was my duty to speak to Miss Edge- 
combe,” she said stiffly; “she is my brother’s child 
and will probably, some day, inherit what I have. I 
should like to have her with me, but,” there was a 
wistful ring in her voice, “ I suppose she is better 
off with you.” 

“ The things Miss Edgecombe can teach her can 
wait, perhaps,” Aunt Nellie answered, smiling down 
at Keineth. “ Keineth is happy in our simple 
life ” 

“ Simple life — ^that’s just it ! ” Aunt Josephine 
i6o 


AUNT JOSEPHINE 

spoke rapidly, as though Mrs. Lee had suddenly 
helped her to find the words she wanted. “ You’re 
so simple that you’re wonderful! You’ve learned 
to live real lives without all the shams that make 
slaves of the rest of us. Why, my life seems as 
empty as a bubble and the things I do worth just 
about as much as a bilbble by the side of this.” She 
swept her hand out toward the lamp-lighted room. 
“And I must have lived like this once — ^but I’ve for- 
gotten ! I’ve always thought my brother queer and 
that governess he had insufferable — ^but I guess you 
and he know what’s best. I’m glad the child is with 
you. Yes,” the wistful note crept back into her 
voice, “ I would have enjoyed having her, but, she’s 
better off, all freckled and in those absurd clothes.” 

As Mrs. Winthrop drove away through the star- 
lit night, a costly robe protecting her from the chill 
of the evening, Celeste at hand for instant service, 
Kingston guiding the monster car, she looked back 
over her shoulder at the little house outlined against 
the sky and sighed — a lonely little sigh. 

In a tumult of joy Keineth had thrown her arms 
about Mrs. Lee’s neck. “ Oh, I was so frightened ! ” 
she cried. “ Thank you for not letting me go. I’d 

i6i 


II 


KEINETH 


have just hated Miss Edgecornbe’s — after this ! And 
I do want to stay with Peggy! ” she finished with a 
tight hug. Then, as they climbed the stairs together, 
she said softly — without knowing why in the least 
she said it : 

“ Poor Aunt Josephine! It must be awful to be 
sich.” 


/ 


CHAPTER XVII 
SCHOOL DAYS 

September had come, and busy days ! For Over- 
look had to be closed, the city home cleaned and 
aired and made ready; Barbara must be sent away 
to college and the younger children started off in 
school. 

“ I feel all sort of queer inside,” said Peggy, 
astride of a trunk, “ the way you do when you hear 
sad songs. I wish it was always summer and noth- 
ing but play.” 

“And no school,” chimed in Billy. He was on 
his knees packing toys. “ I don’t see what good 
school does, anyway! If nobody went to school it’d 
all be the same.” 

“ I just hate beginning and then I love it,” cried 
Alice. 

“ You won’t love it when you get into fractions,” 
retorted Billy, “ ’course its fun down in the baby 
grades ! ” He spoke from the lofty distinction of 
163 


KEINETH 


a sub-freshman in the Technical High. Some day 
Billy was going to make boilers like his father. 

“ I don’t mind school, but it’s the fuss getting 
things ready. I just despise dressmakers! You 
wait, Ken, until mother gets after you and you stand 
by the hour and have Miss Harris fit you! The only 
fun is watching to see how many pins she can put 
in her mouth without swallowing any. Did that 
governess make your clothes ? ” 

Keineth described the funny little shop where 
Tante took her twice a year. “ They kept my meas- 
urements there and Tante would just look at the 
materials.” 

“And you never decided as to what color you 
wanted or had ribbons and things ? ” cried Peggy 
wonderingly. 

Keineth’s face colored a little. “ Madame Henri 
thought plain things better,” she explained. 

“ That’s what mother says, but that plain things 
can be pretty, too. She always lets us choose our 
color because she says it trains our tastes. And this 
year, if I don’t have a pink dress for best I’m going 
to make an awful fuss ! ” 


164 


SCHOOL DAYS 


“ I’d like a pink dress,” Keineth agreed shyly, 
“ I never had one ! ” 

Peggy jumped off the trunk. 

“ Let’s tease for pink dresses just alike; and now 
what do you say to a last game of tennis ? ” 

“ Make it doubles ! I’ll play with Alice,” cried 
Billy, eagerly dropping his work. And with merry 
laughter they rushed away. 

To close Overlook Wcis an almost sacred task to 
the Lee family. Each did his or her part tenderly, 
reluctantly. Mrs. Lee and Barbara folded away 
the pretty hangings; Billy made the garden ready 
for the fall fertilizing, took Gyp to his winter home 
at a nearby farm, and put the barn in order; the 
younger girls helped Nora polish and cover the 
kitchen utensils. 

And never had the days seemed more glorious 
nor inviting, filled with the .hazy September glow 
that turned everything into gold. 

“ It’s always just the nicest when we have to go 
to the city,” Peggy complained sadly. They were 
gathered for the last time on the veranda watching 
the sunset. On the morrow they would return to 
town. Mr, Lee looked over the young faces — the 
i6s 


KEINETH 


tanned cheeks and the eyes glowing with health; 
the straight backs and limbs strong and supple from 
the summer’s exercise. 

“You’re a fine-looking bunch to begin the winter’s 
work,” he laughed. “ It ought to be very easy to 
you youngsters.” 

“ How lucky we are to be able to live like this,” 
Barbara said with a little sigh. She was thinking 
as she said it that she was often going to be very 
lonesome for home and this dear circle. Eager as 
she was to begin her new life in college, she could 
not bear the breaking of the home ties. 

And bravely she had decided she would tell no 
one of this heartache, for one day she had surprised 
her mother gently crying over the piles of under- 
garments they had made ready. Mrs. Lee had tried 
to laugh as she wiped away her tears. 

“ I’m just foolish, darling, only it seems such a 
little while ago that you were a baby, my first baby — 
and here you are going off to college, away from 
me!” 

So not for the world would Barbara have dis- 
tressed her mother by showing the ache in her own 

i66 


SCHOOL DAYS 

heart. In answer she had thrown her arms about 
her mother’s neck in a passion of affection. 

“ I’ll always, always, always love home best,” 
she vowed. 

And this would not be hard, for the Lees’ home, 
made beautiful by love rather than wealth, was of 
the sort that would always be “ home,” and no mat- 
ter how far one of them might travel or in what 
gay places linger, would always be “ best of all ! ” 

The Lees’ city home was not at all like Keineth’s 
old home in New York, nor like Aunt Josephine’s 
pretentious house on Riverside Drive. Though it 
seemed right in the heart of the city and only a 
stone’s throw from the business centre, it was on a 
quiet, broad street and had a little yard of its own all 
around it. The house was built of wood and needed 
painting, but the walks and lawns were neatly 
kept. Within it was simple and roomy, with broad 
halls and wide windows, shaded by the elms out- 
side. Its walls were brown-toned, and yellow hang- 
ings covered the white frilled curtains at the win- 
dows. There was one big living-room, with rows 
and rows of bookshelves, easy chairs and soft rugs, 
a worn davenport in front of the fire, tables with 
167 


KEINETH 


lamps, and books and magazines spread out upon 
them in inviting disorder. There were flowers here, 
too, as at Overlook, and Peggy’s bird had its home 
in the big bay of the dining-room, where he wel- 
comed each morning’s sunshine with glad song. 

Each little girl had a room of her own, too, hung 
with bright chintz, with covers on the bureau and 
bed to match. Peggy’s and Keineth’s had a door 
opening from one to the other. Billy with his be- 
loved wireless and other things that Peggy called 
“ truck ” was happily established in the back of the 
house. 

In a twinkling the entire family was settled in 
the city, “ just as though we’d never been away,” 
Peggy declared. Then two days later Barbara started 
off for college. 

The parting was merry. The girls had helped 
her pack her trunks; sitting on her bed they had 
superintended the important process of “ doing up ” 
her hair; and then had taken turns carrying to the 
station the smart patent-leather dressing-case which 
had been her father’s gift. Everyone smiled up to 
the last moment before the train pulled out of the 
station — then everyone coughed a great deal and 

i68 


SCHO'Oi: DAYS 


Mr. Lee blew his nose and Mrs. Lee wiped her eyes 
and Peggy sighed. 

“ I’d hate to be grown-up,” she admitted, and 
as she walked away she held her mother’s hand 
tightly. 

Although Barbara’s going made a great gap in 
the little circle, everyone was too busy to grieve. 
School began and with it home work; there was 
basket-ball and dancing school and shopping, hats 
and shoes to buy. Miss Harris arrived for her 
annual visit and much time was spent over samples 
and patterns. And Peggy and Keineth got their 
pink dresses ! Then there were old friends to see, 
new ones to make and relatives to visit. In this 
whirl of excitement the Overlook days were soon 
forgotten ! 

With the city life a little of Keineth’s shyness 
had returned. She felt lost among Peggy’s many 
friends ; the hours when Peggy was in school dragged 
a little. The simplicity of the Lees’ city home had 
made her homesick for the big house in Washington 
Square — for its very emptiness! So because of 
this loneliness she spent hours at the piano eagerly 
practicing the technic that imder Tante had been 
169 


KEINETH 


so tiresome. Mrs. Lee had engaged one of the best 
masters in the city and Keineth went almost daily 
to his funny little studio. At first she had been a 
little afraid of him. He was a Pole, a round- 
shouldered man with long gray hair that hung over 
his collar and queer eyes that seemed to look through 
and through one. But after she had heard him play 
she lost her shyness, for in his music she heard the 
voices she loved. He called her “ little one,” and 
told her long stories of Liszt and Chopin and the 
other masters. “ They are the people that live for- 
ever,” he would say. 

0)5»e rainy afternoon after school Peggy went to 
Keineth’s room and found its door shut. Peggy 
was cross because a cold had kept her home from 
basket-ball, and she deeply resented this closed door. 

“ I s’pose you’re doing something you don’t want 
me to know.” Her ear had caught the quick rustle 
of paper. In a moment Keineth had opened the 
door, but Peggy was turning away with a toss of 
her head. 

“ Oh, if you don’t want me ” 

“ Please, Peg,” begged Keineth. She pulled her 
170 


SCHOOL DAYS 


into the room. “ I didn’t know you were home, 
honest ! ” 

Peggy glimpsed the corner of a paper half hid- 
den under some books. Upon it were written bars 
of music. 

“ You have got a secret,” she cried excitedly,, 
“ you’re writing music ! Keineth Randolph, if you 
don’t tell your very best friend, now ! ” 

Keineth, her face scarlet, drew out the tell-tale 
paper. 

“ It’s just a little thing,” she explained shyly. 
“ Your mother showed me how to write last sum- 
mer, but I wanted to surprise everybody. I was 
going to tell you, though, when it was done. Peg, 
I’m going to try to sell it ! ” 

“ Sell it! Get real money? ” cried Peggy. 

“ Yes — ^that’s what the masters did — only they 
were nearly always starving. ’Course I’m not, but 
I would like to earn some money.” 

“ Oh, wouldn’t it be fun? ” Peggy caught 
Keineth’s elbows and whirled her aroimd. “ What 
would you ever do with it? But where do you sell 
music? And what is its name? ” 

“ I call it ‘ The Castle of Dreams,’ ” answered 
171 


KEINETH 


Keineth with shining eyes. “And Mr. Cadowitz told 
me there’s a music house right here in the city — 
Brown and Co.” 

“ Let’s go there together ! Let’s go now! 
Mother’s away and it’s just the time! ” 

The sore throat was forgotten. Peggy helped 
Keineth arrange the sheets in a little roll and to- 
gether they started forth on their secret errand. 
They foimd the music house without any difficulty, 
but Keineth’s courage almost failed her when she 
found herself confronted by a long line of clerks. 
To the one who came forward she explained her 
errand. She wanted to see the manager — she had 
some music she wished to sell ! 

At his amused glance her face flushed scarlet. 

“ Why, you’re just a kid ! ” he answered im- 
pudently. “ Mr. Brown’s pretty busy ! ” Then it 
suddenly occurred to him that it would be something 
like a joke on the “ boss ” to take these two children 
to his busy office. The derk was not overfond of 
the head of the firm. 

“ Well, come along,” he conduded, winking at 
the other men. 


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SCHOOL DAYS 


He led the two girls through a labyrinth of offices 
and up a stairway to the manager’s door. 

“ Two young ladies to see you! ” he announced 
and shut the door of the office quickly behind him. 

Keineth, frightened, had to swallow twice before 
she could make a sound. Then, holding the manu- 
script out, she explained her errand to the manager. 
Tipped back in his chair he listened with a smile; 
however, he took the roll from her and, opening it, 
glanced over it indifferently. 

“ Let me play it for you,” begged Keineth 
desperately. 

He led them into an inner room in the centre of 
which stood an open grand piano. Keineth went 
straight to it and began to play. He listened through 
to the end. 

“ Wait a moment ; ” he waved her back to the 
stool. “ I want Gregory to hear you.” The tone of 
his voice had changed. 

In answer to a summons Gregory came in, a thin, 
tired-looking man. The manager turned to him: : 

“ This girl has brought in some music ! I want 
you to hear it,” and he nodded to Keineth to ibegin. 

She played it through again while the two men 
173 


KEINETH 


held the manuscript between them and read as she 
played. The man called Gregory nodded again and 
again. His face had suddenly lost its tired look ! 

“ Why, we’ve found a little gem ! ” Peggy heard 
him mutter. Then to Keineth: “ What did you say 
your name was ? ” Keineth repeated it and the man- 
ager wrote it down with Mr. Lee’s address. He 
took the sheets of music, rolled them, and put them 
in a drawer and locked it. 

“ We will consider it and let you know in a few 
weeks,” he said. Then he shook hands with Keineth 
and Peggy. “And if you write anything more, 
please bring it to us.” 

“ Oh, Peg, wouldn’t it be grand if I could sell 
lots ? ” cried Keineth later, in an ecstasy of ambition. 

“ If I wasn’t on the street I’d whoop,” and 
Peggy squeezed her friend’s arm, “ Why, Ken — 
maybe you’ll be a master! ” 

“And remember, don’t tell a soul. Peg ! Honor 
bright, cross your heart ! ” 

“Honor bright, cross my heart!” Peggy 
promised. 


174 


CHAPTER XVIII 
CHRISTMAS 

“ Christmas isn’t half as much fun after you 
don’t believe in Santa Claus.” Peggy heaved a 
mighty sigh as she worked her needle in and out of 
the handkerchief she was hemstitching. “ How old 
were you, Keineth, when you found there wasn’t a 
Santa Claus ? ” 

Keineth did not answer for a moment. Her 
shining eyes had a far-away look. She did not know 
what to say to make Peggy understand that, as far 
back as she could remember, the beloved Santa and 
the Christmas Spirit and her Daddy had always 
seemed to be one and the same person. Always on 
Christmas morning her father had come to her bed, 
helped her hurry on her slippers and robe and had 
carried her on his back down the long stairway to 
the shadowy library where, on a table close to the 
fireplace, a-twinkle with tiny candles and bright with 
tinsel, they would find the tree he had trimmed. She 
could not bear to speak of it. 

175 


KEINETH 


Instead she told Peggy of the way she and her 
father always spent Christmas Eve; how he would 
take her to a funny little restaurant where they would 
eat roast pig and little Christmas cakes and then go 
to the stores and wander along looking into the 
gaily-trimmed windows. 

“ You see there are ever and ever so maiiy chil- 
dren near our home that never have any Christmas, 
and we used to wait for some to come and look 
into the window. Then Daddy’d invite them to go 
inside and pick out a toy. They’d be frightened 
at first, as if they couldn’t believe it, but after they’d 
see Daddy smile they’d look so happy and talk so 
fast. Daddy always told them to pick out what 
they’d always wanted and never had, and the boys 
most always took engines and the girls wanted dolls 
— dolls with eyes that’d shut and open. Daddy and 
I used to think that was more fun than getting 
presents ourselves.” 

Mrs. Lee had listened with much interest. Her 
face, as she bent it over her needle-work, was serious. 

“ If I told you girlies of a family I ran across 
the other day, would you like to help make their 
Christmas a little merrier? ” 

176 



CHRISTMAS 


They begged her to tell them. 

Though Mrs. Lee never lacked time for the many 
demands of her family and friends, she was a woman 
who went about among the poor a great deal. Not 
like Aunt Josephine, who was the president of sev- 
eral charitable societies and sent her yellow car 
about the poorer parts of New York that Kingston 
might bestow for her deserving aid in places where 
she herself could not go — Mrs. Lee worked quietly, 
going herself into the homes of the sick and needy 
and carrying with her, besides warm clothing and 
food, the comfort and cheer that she gave to her own 
dear ones. No one could know just how much she 
did, because she rarely spoke of it. 

“ These people live in a tenement down near the 
river. The father was crippled in an explosion sev- 
eral years ago and the mother has to work to sup- 
port her family. There are seven children — the 
oldest is fifteen. What do you think they do at 
Christmas — and they love Christmas just the way 
you do! They take turns having presents! And 
one of them has been very, very ill this fall, so Tim, 
whose turn it really is this year, is going to give up 
his Christmas for Mary. Isn’t that fine in Tim? 
177 


12 


KEINETH 


Think of waiting for your turn out of seven and then 
giving it up/’ 

Peggy threw down her work. Oh, Mother, 
can’t we make up a jolly basket for them all like we 
did for the Finnegans two years ago? And put in 
something extra for Tim because he’s so — so fine? ” 
That’s just what I wanted you to say,” and 
Mrs. Lee smiled at her little girl. “ Make out a list 
of what you want to put in the basket and then when 
you get your Christmas money you can go shopping.” 

‘‘ Oh, what fun it will be to take the basket there ! 
*How old are the children. Mother? ” 

Peggy brought pencils and paper. The work was 
laid aside and the children commenced to make the 
list of things for the basket. Alice and Billy were 
consulted and agreed eagerly to their plans, Billy 
deciding that he would take the money he had been 
saving for a new tool set and with it buy a moving- 
picture machine for Tim. 

Keineth had dreaded Christmas coming without 
her daddy. But there was sO' much to do and think 
about that she had no time tO' be unhappy. There 
was much shopping to do and the stores were so 
exciting. Mrs. Lee had given her the same amount 
1/8 


CHRISTMAS 


of spending money that Peggy had received and she 
and Peggy went together to purchase the things for 
the basket, besides other mysterious packages to be 
hidden away until Christmas morning. Then one 
evening there was a family council to decide just 
what they would do on Christmas. 

“ We always do this,” whispered Peggy to 
Keineth as they sat close together, “ and then we 
always do just what Alice wants us to do, ’cause she’s 
the baby.” 

And Alice begged them all to hang up their stock- 
ings and to have a tree, if it was just a teeny, weeny 
one! 

“ We’ll do it,” Mr. Lee agreed, as if there had 
been a moment’s doubt of it. 

“ I suppose we’ll go on hanging up our stockings 
after we’re doddering old grandparents,” Mrs. Lee 
had laughed, though there was a suspicion of tears 
in her eyes. 

“ Mother and Daddy just spend all their time 
making everything jolly for us children,” Peggy 
said afterwards. The children were sitting around 
the table, their school-books before them. “ I just 
wish we could do something that’d be an awful 
179 


KEINETH 


nice surprise for them.” She stared thoughtfully 
at the blank paper before her on which a map ought 
to be. 

“ Let’s do something on Christmas that they 
won’t know about,” suggested Alice. 

“ What? ’’put in Billy. 

“ Janet Clark’s cousins have charades Christmas 
night.” 

“ Oh, charades are stupid ! ” Billy hated 
guessing. 

Peggy’s pencil was going around in tiny circles. 

She was thinking very hard. Suddenly she sprang 
to her feet. 

“ I know ! Ken, let’s write a play ! ” 

“ A play ! ” cried the others. 

“ Yes. I’ve got it all in my head, now. Barb 
will help us when she comes home. You know 
Mother is going to invite Aunt Cora and Uncle Tom 
Jenkins and the Pennys over for dinner Christmas ■; 
night; we’ll surprise them with the play. Marian 
and Ted and the Penny girls can be in it! Oh, I’ve ; 
always wanted to act ! Won’t it be / mw.' ” | 

Peggy’s enthusiasm won instant support from | 
the others. Because Peggy and Keineth. had re- j 

180 I 


CHRISTMAS 


cently attended a matinee performance of “ The 
Midsummer Night’s Dream,” sitting in a box and 
wearing the new pink dresses, Billy and Alice con- 
ceded that they knew more about plays and must 
manage this. There were hours and hours then 
spent behind locked doors and Mrs. Lee could hear 
shrieks of laughter with Peggy’s voice rising sternly 
above it. Now and then she caught glimpses of 
flying figures draped in pink and white, but because 
it was Christmas-time and the air full of mystery, 
she pretended to hear and see nothing. 

Barbara returned four days before Christmas, 
very much of a young lady. Though her manner 
toward the yoimger children was at first a little 
patronizing, after a few hours at home it quickly 
gave way to the old-time comradeship. As soon as 
she could Peggy dragged her to her room and read 
to her the lines of the play which she and Keineth had 
scribbled on countless sheets of paper. Barbara 
promised to help. To guard the secret the last 
rehearsals were held at Marian Jenkins’, under 
Barbara’s coaching; and Billy and Ted Jenkins 
printed the programs on Ted’s printing press. 

i8i 


KEINETH 


Oh, it’s going to be the best part of Christmas,” 
Keineth cried delightedly. 

But it was not quite the best, for on Christmas 
morning, after the children had returned from taking 
their basket to Tim and his family, Keineth found 
a cablegram from her Daddy, wishing her a merry, 
merry Christmas ! 

Somehow, after that, it seemed as if her joy was 
complete ! 

The gifts that the Lee children had found in their 
stockings had been very simple; beside them the 
elaborate presents that had come in a box from Aunt 
Josephine seemed vulgar and showy, although Bar- 
bara had cried out in delight at her bracelet. To 
Keineth and Peggy she had sent tiny wrist watches, 
circled with turquoise. 

Much too lovely for children like you,” had 
been Mrs. Lee’s comment. 

While Mrs. Lee was helping Nora prepare the 
dinner the children put the finishing touches to their 
costumes and with much whispering arranged the 
stage for the play. The little tree around which the 
play must be acted had been put at one end of the 
long living-room ; the door close to it on the right, 
182 


CHRISTMAS 


leading into the hall, would serve as a stage entrance. 
The only property needed was a rock, and by cover- 
ing it with a strip of gray awning, the piano stool 
would look very real. 

At six o’clock Aunt Cora and Uncle Tom, Marian 
and Ted arrived ; a little later all the Pennys. Eight- 
een sat down at the table that creaked with the 
good things Mrs. Lee and Nora had prepared. 
Everyone talked at once. Keineth, looking down the 
length of the room, decked with the holly the chil- 
dren had fastened over doors and windows, thought 
that nowhere could Christmas be merrier than right 
there at the Lees ! And what helped make the mer- 
riment was the comforting thought that Tim and 
his family were eating a Christmas dinner, too ! 

At eight o’clock Peggy stole quietly to her 
mother. 

“ May we children go up to the playroom. 
Mummy? It’d be more fun there,” she whispered. 
Mrs. Lee nodded. 

The playroom was really a part of the attic, 
partitioned off and lighted. Here the children 
donned the cheesecloth costumes they had made. 
There was a great deal of laughter ; Peggy was giving 
183 


KEINETH 


orders to everyone at once ! Barbara sat on a trunk 
pinning wings to fairies’ shoulders. And at the last 
moment Marian brought out some real make-up 
stuff she had borrowed ! 

Then Billy, in a clown’s robe made out of an old 
pair of night-drawers and a great deal of paper, 
went downstairs to give out the programs. 

“ Oh, do I look like a real actress ? ” whispered 
Peggy to Keineth, wildly pulling at her tinsel crown. 

“ Just beautiful ! ” Keineth whispered back. “ But 
oh. I’m so scared ! I know I won’t remember a sinqle 
line!” 


CHAPTER XIX 


WHEN THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT WORKED 
OVERTIME 

Peals of laughter greeted Billy s appearance in 
the living-room. Then everyone read the programs 
he gave them. 

“ The rascals ! ” cried Mr. Lee, genuinely 
surprised. 

“ Look at this,” whispered Mrs. Lee, pointing to 
the program. 

For at its top was printed in large letters : 

WHEN THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT WORKED OVERTIME 

BY 

PEGGY LEE AND KEINETH RANDOLPH 

And the rest of the program read : 

The Time of the Play: 

Christmas night after the children are supposed to 
have gone to bed, a little ill from their Christmas candies, 
and when the grownfolks have gathered together to talk 
over the day and declare that it’s the best Christmas the 
children have ever had. 


185 


KEINETH 


The Place : 

The living-room at home. And if possible the room 
should be darkened, except for the lights on the tree, but 
if this is not convenient it doesn’t matter in the least, for 
the Christmas Spirit is not afraid to walk into the most 
brightly-lighted room ! 

.Peggy Lee 

, Keineth Randolph 
Marian Jenkins 
, Sally Penny 
Fanny Penny 
Anne Penny 
.Alice Lee 
William Lee, Jr. 
Edward Jenkins 

I recognize Barbara’s hand assisting,” laughed 
Mr. Lee, as he read through the program. 

'' Sh — h! ” The chatter suddenly ceased. Bar- 
bara pressed a button that shut off all the lights 
excepting the twinkling bulbs on the tree. In another 
room the children sang Silent Night.” As the last 
sweet note died away, Peggy, in gauzy white with 
tinsel crown and wings, came slowly into the room. 
She sank down upon the rock. The play had begun. 

i86 


The Persons who are in the Play: 

The Christmas Spirit 

The Christmas Fairies : 

Happyheart 

Peace 

Goodwill 

Merrylips 

Joy 

Spirit of Childhood 

Jesters 


CHRISTMiAS SPIRIT WORKED OVERTIME 


Spirit (yawns) : Goodness me, how tired I am! (Yawns 
again.) It seems as if there are more children every dirist- 
mas. I think after to-night Til go to bed for a whole year! 
(Lifts her head suddenly and looks at the tree.) Why, 
there are no presents on the tree! It must be a party of 
grownfolks! (Sighs.) I do feel so sorry for grownfolks! 
They always have to pretend theyYe having a Christmas. 
(Springs to her feet.) Perhaps they’re here now. (Looks 
intently at audience.) Yes — they are! I can always tell 
when grownfolks are around, because I have to work so 
much harder with them. I must call my fairies. (Spirit 
steps toward door, puts her hand cup-shape to her mouth.) 

Come, oh Christmas fairies all, 

Answer to the Spirit’s call! 

(As she calls the fairies Happyheart, Merrylips, Good- 
will, and Peace dance into the room, curtsey low to the 
Spirit and group themselves about her.) 

Spirit (holds out welcoming hands) : Ah, fairies, what a 
wonderful day this has been ! Did you fill the stockings, 
Happyheart? 

Happyheart: I’ve filled a million stockings! 

Spirit: Splendid! And you, Merrylips? 

Merrylips: I’ve trimmed a million trees — small ones and 
big ones ! 

Spirit: Didn’t you love it? They smell so good! How 
went the day with you. Goodwill ? 

Goodwill: Oh, I’ve carried baskets of food until I am sure 
there was not a hungry person in the whole wide world ! 

187 


KEINETH 


Spirit: Tell us, Peace, of your work to-day ! 

Peace: I have gone about since early morning putting 
songs in peopIe^s hearts ! 

Spirit: You worked well ! I have heard the music all 
day long ! 

Merrylips (yawns) : WeVe terribly tired ! 

Spirit (sternly) : Hush! Fairies must never be tired when 
there is work to do I See, I have found a tree ! It has these 
pretty lights but there are no presents ! 

Happyheart: Who’s tree can it be? 

Spirit: It is a tree for some grownfolks! You see the 
children all over the land must have been put to bed a long 
time ago. 

Peace (nods her head) : Grownfolks generally do stay 
up late Christmas night I 

Happyheart: They get very sad wishing they were chil- 
dren again ! 

Merrylips: Christmas is very hard on them, poor things! 

Spirit: The men talk about spending so much money and 
the women sit up late nights stitching and stitching and com- 
plaining that they will not give anything but cards another 
Christmas. 

Merrylips: How foolish they are! 

Peace: They forget that we will help them! 

Happyheart: You see they don’t believe in fairies! It’s 
because they are so old! Why, they say that some are over 
thirty ! 

Goodwill: As if that mattered ! 

Spirit: But I do feel very sorry for them! They can 

i88 


CHRISTMAS SPIRIT WORKED OVERTIME 


scarcely remember when they used to hang up their stockings ! 
They will come and gather around this tree and there will 
be no presents ! 

Happyheart (sits down upon stool): Oh, dear! (Drops 
her chin in her hand.) Can’t we do something? 

Peace: Let’s think hard! 

Goodwill (sadly) : Our real presents are gone. There 
were so many children this year ! 

Merry lips: And they make out such long lists ! Why, the 
trees would scarcely hold all the things ! 

Spirit: We must do what we can to make Christmas merry 
for these grownfolks. 

Happyheart (claps her hands) : I can make their hearts 
light ! 

Goodwill: I can make them kindly to one another ! 

Merry lips: I can make them laugh! 

Peace: And I can put one of my songs in their hearts ! 

Spirit (as others make these suggestions she turns toward 
the tree, deep in- thought; suddenly she wheels around) : Your 
gifts are priceless but, somehow, I wish we had something 
besides them for these grownfolks ! 

Goodwill: I should like to make this a Christmas they 
would remember the year through ! 

Happyheart: I should like to teach them to believe in 
fairies ! 

Peace: Perhaps if we could fill their tree with gifts they 
would not forget ! 

Merrylips: Let’s ask Joy! 

189 


KEINETH 


Spirit: Where is she? 

Happyheart: Oh, she is still working. But if we sing her 
song she will come ! 

Merrylips: Let's sing, then! (Holds up her finger.) One, 
two, three! (All sing softly the Christmas Carol, “Joy to the 
World." As they sing Joy runs into the room. The fairies 
circle about her.) 

Joy (stepping to the foreground and stretching arms) : 
Oh, I am so tired ! 

Spirit (steps forward and lays her hand on Joy's 
shoulder): Poor little Joy-fairy! 

Joy: I've been so busy making happiness! This funny 
world needs so much of it and everyone wants something dif- 
ferent! And there were so many children! (Turns to the 
tree.) What — another tree? 

Spirit: Yes, and we have no presents! Happyheart can 
make their hearts light and Peace can give them a song, but, 
you know, I'd just like to have them have some presents — 
like children have ! 

Merrylips (dances a step or two) : Fairy presents would 
be fun ! They are more fun than real presents and can make 
wishes come true ! 

Goodwill: They say grownfolks are worse than children 
about making wishes, only they keep their wishes locked up ! 

Happyheart: Wouldn't it be lovely? 

Joy: I know — let's call the Spirit of Childhood! 

Happyheart: Splendid! She will surely know a way! 

Spirit: How can we call her, Joy-fairy? 


CHRISTMAS SPIRIT WORKED OVERTIME 


Joy: Put your fingers over your eyes tight ! (All put their 
fingers over their eyes.) Now, say after me — “ Spirit of 
Childhood, come at our call ! ” 

Chorus: 

Spirit of Childhood, come at our call, 

Spirit of Childhood, come at our call ! 

(As they repeat this the Spirit of Childhood dances 
joyously into the room and faces them. As they remove 
their fingers from their eyes, they bow low.) 

Chorus: Childhood ! 

Childhood (faces audience) : I am the Spirit of Child- 
hood! I am the happiest fairy of all! I am known all over 
this wide, wide world ! Everybody loves me ! Sometimes I 
am a dream, too, and I come out of the past when it is very 
still and creep into old, old hearts ! 

Happyheart (impatiently): We know all that! 

Spirit (steps toward Childhood) : We want you to help 
us now. Childhood, to make Christmas merry for this party 
of grownfolks. 

Childhood: No children? The/re all grownfolks? 

Spirit: No children. They're all grownfolks. 

Childhood: Poor things ! How sad ! 

Spirit: But they have a tree and we want to give them 
gifts which, because they are fairy gifts, will make their best 
every-day wish come true ! 

Childhood: Yes — they’ll think, because they are grownups, 
they must have useful gifts ! But they shall have fairy gifts ! 

Happyheart (to other fairies) : I told you she^d help us ! 

191 


KEINETH 


Merry lips: And these grown folks must make a big, big 
wish and have it on top of their hearts ! Then, if they carry 
their gifts in the bottom of their pockets their wishes will 
come true ! 

Childhood: I will call my Jesters! They are clever 
knaves — they will find the gifts 1 

Happyheart: Call them quickly! 

Childhood: I have to do very funny things, because I am 
Childhood, you know. (She dances backward and forward 
across the room, with merry step; pirouettes and points 
finger into audience.) Some one out there must laugh, or 
the Jesters will not think we are merry. .Laugh, someone, 
laugh! Harder! I am Childhood! Laugh with me! (As 
she speaks some one in the audience laughs; others join.) 

Childhood (runs to door) : 

Jester big, jester small. 

Come at Childhood's merry call! 

(Jesters enter^ — stand near door.) 

Chorus: Welcome — welcome ! 

Childhood (to Jesters) : Go — find and bring us the biggest 
Christmas stocking in the world ! It must be filled with fairy 
gifts! (Jesters hurry out.) 

Goodwill: How will we know which gifts to give each 
person? 

Childhood: Oh, I will look in my Book of the Past! You 
see I have to keep careful records of everybody ! 

Spirit: Why it's just like Santa Gaus used to do when the 
old-fashioned children believed in him ! 


192 


CHRISTMAS SPIRIT WORKED OVERTIME 

Happyheart: He was a fine man ! 

Spirit: Ah, here they come ! 

(Enter Jesters dragging behind them an enormous 
Christmas stocking made of red cambric. They give it to 
the Christmas Spirit, then step back to the door.) 

Childhood (as others gather around the stocking) : Go, 
Jesters, and bring me my Book of Records ! 

Happyheart: Open it quickly! (Spirit opens stocking — 
all peep in.) Oh, lots and lots of gifts ! 

(Jester returns, gives book to Childhood who goes to 
the right of group and stands next to Happyheart.) 

Childhood (solemnly to audience) : Are all the grownups 
ready? Have they got their best wish on top of their hearts? 

Happyheart: Is every one happy? 

Goodwill: Do you all feel very, very kind to one another? 

Peace: Do you know my songs ? 

Childhood: Then let’s have a bright so that we may 
begin ! 

(Lights of the room flash on.) 

(Spirit takes packages one by one from the stocking 
and reads the name. Then she hold? the package while 
Happyheart reads from Childhood’s Rt .ord what the book 
has to say of each person. After this has been read Joy 
with dancing step takes the fairy package to the person 
named. This goes on until every one in the audience has 
received a gift.) 

Spirit (throws stocking down) : The stocking is empty ! 

Happyheart: The fairy gifts are all gone! 


13 


193 


KEINETH 


Childhood (shakes finger at audience) : But each one of 
you has a wish that will come true, just as sure as sure can 
be ; for you have received a fairy gift ! 

Happyheart: And now they will be happy! 

Goodwill (claps her hands together as if with a happy 
thought) : Let us send the Jesters to bring in to them the 
Christmas Bowl! If they drink our fairy brew they will 
never, never forget this Christmas ! 

Happyheart: And they will always believe in the Christmas 
Spirit ! 

Spirit: And in the Christmas Fairies ! 

Goodwill: Go, Jesters, and bring in to them the Christmas 
Bowl! (Jesters go out quickly.) 

Spirit: Now, fairies, we must stop our work! WeVe 
worked overtime already, and you know there is an eight- 
hour law now for fairies. 

Merrylips: Yes* but weVe helped these poor grownfolks ! 

Happyheart: :t us say farewell to them ! Now, one — 

two — three ! 

Chorus (waving hands) : 

May the brew that weVe mixed you make every heart light, 
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night ! 

(Fairies dance out, followed by the Spirit. Jesters, 
blowing horns, enter the room, bearing a tray upon which 
is placed a punch bowl filled with Nora’s best cider punch.) 

j(: jK * * * * 

Loud applause demanded the return of the fairies 
and then all gathered in a merry group around the 

194 


CHRISTMAS SPIRIT WORKED OVERTIME 


punch bowl while Mr. Lee toasted the youthful cast. 

“ I suspect you, Miss Bab, of a hand in those 
records,” he cried, shaking a finger at Barbara. A 
paper crown was set rakishly on his head. 

Behind the laughter in Mrs. Lee’s eyes was shin- 
ing something very like tears as she drew little Alice 
to her. Across the brightly-crowned heads of the 
children her glance caught Mr. Lee’s. 

“ I feel as if my heart had been brushed by fairy 
wings to-night,” she said with a happy sigh. 


CHAPTER XX 
SHADOWS 

“ William, it can’t be true! ” 

Keineth, pausing on the threshold of the dining- 
room door, overheard the words. Peggy and Billy 
had gone to school; she was starting out for her 
music lesson and had stopped to ask Aunt Nellie a 
question. The tone of Aunt Nellie’s voice, the seri- 
ousness of Mr. Lee’s face, made Keineth’s heart turn 
cold with fear! 

“Aunt Nellie.” They both turned towards her, 
startled. Involuntarily Mrs. Lee slipped the news- 
paper she had been reading under her napkin. 

“ Keineth, dear ! ” She held out her hand, her 
eyes filling with tears. 

Keineth stood quite still, looking from one to 
the other, and because he was always somewhere 
very close in her mind and heart she cried “ Daddy ! ” 

Mrs. Lee had a curiously helpless look, as if she 
scarcely knew what to say, and with one hand she 
still held the paper beneath her napkin. Mr. Lee’s 
196 


SHADOWS 


voice was husky, he had to clear it two or three 
times before he could speak, and all the while 
Keineth’s great eyes were fastened gravely upon him, 
demanding the truth. 

“ It may be a false report, my dear. There’s 
been an accident at sea, and according to the 
paper ” 

“ My daddy was in it ! ” cried Keineth, putting 
her hands to her face. “Was my daddy in it?” 
she demanded in a queer little voice. 

“ Come here, dear,” Mrs. Lee held out her hand 
again, but Keineth did not stir. 

“ Was he — in — it ? ” she demanded again. 

“ His name was listed among the passengers sail- 
ing from Liverpool, but there may have been a 
mistake.” 

Keineth’s eyes were blazing. She walked to the 
table. 

“Please give me that paper. Aunt Nellie! I 
have a right tO' know what it says ! ” She did not 
seem like the child she was as she stood there, white- 
faced. Her voice was very calm. Aunt Nellie 
handed her the paper ; as she did so she said plead- 
ingly : “ Keineth, why not wait until your Uncle 
197 


KEINETH 

William has found out if it is true? ’’ But Keineth 
did not hear her; she slowly unfolded the paper, 
stared a moment at the headlines, then, turning, 
rushed with it from the room. 

There it was — his name! Her finger found it 
and stopped, as though she cared nothing for the 
rest ! She read the big letters of the headlines, the 
few words that told of the attack by a German sub- 
marine on the big passenger ship, of the horrible con- 
fusion of the few moments before it sank, of the 
wild panic of the cowardly and the splendid bravery 
of a few! Then: John Randolph, of New York 
City, the well-known journalist, abroad on a special 
mission for the President of the United States, was 
among the passengers.” 

Keineth, on her knees, with the paper spread out 
before her, read and reread the words. They 
sounded so final! He was gone — her daddy was 
gone ! 

And yet — ^how could this happen to her in this 
way? She knew a little of death; way back in her 
memory was a haunting picture of her own mother’s 
going, of her father’s grief and the music and the 
flowers. And she had watched the funeral of 
198 


SHADOWS 


Francesca’s baby brother from behind the geranium 
boxes. There had been music then, too. But this 
was so different — ^just the lines in the newspaper 
and then nothing more, ever and ever and ever ! It 
couldn’t happen like that! She was too puzzled to 
cry. There were so many questions she wanted to 
ask — ^how deep was the ocean there ? Couldn’t they 
swim ? And whom could she ask who would tell her 
all about it? 

She heard the door open, but did not turn her 
head. She felt Aunt Nellie’s arms lift her, draw 
her head close to her breast. Aunt Nellie’s voice was 
very tender. 

“ Uncle William has gone to telegraph imme- 
diately to the New York offices of the steamship 
line. We may learn more, my dear. You must be 
brave' — ^you know how brave your father always 
was.” 

Almost violently Keineth pushed her away. 

“ I don’t believe it ! ” she cried. Seizing the 
paper, she tore it into little bits and threw them 
fiercely to the floor. 

“I’ll never, never, nev-er believe it! He zvill 
come back ! ” And poor Keineth threw herself upon 


199 


KEINETH 


her bed and covered her face tight with her hands. 
She had caught the look of deep pity on Aunt Nellie’s 
face. Aunt Nellie believed it ! She could not bear it ! 

“ Please go away,” she begged through her 
fingers. And Aunt Nellie slipped out of the room, 
closing the door softly behind her. 

Keineth could shut from her eyes Aunt Nellie’s 
pity, but she could not shut from her mind the flood 
of thoughts that came. Cruel thoughts, too, which 
her persistent “ I don’t believe it ” failed to drive 
away! She had seen a picture once of a sinking 
ship; a great wave of water had engulfed it, men 
were clinging to its side like flies ! She remembered 
it now! Remembered, too, an awful storm when, 
holding her daddy’s hand, she had watched from a 
high point of land the angry sea surging over the 
rocks far beneath them. It was green and black and 
white where the water hissed, and its roar had made 
her shiver ! That was the same sea ! “ Oh, I don’t 
believe it! ” she whispered. She had made so many 
pictures in her mind of her father’s home-coming — ■ 
she had felt sure he would surprise her ! She had 
thought that perhaps she might go back to the old 
house and find him there, or go with someone to the 


200 


SHADOWS 


dock and watch his boat come in and see him waving 
from its deck ! Perhaps she might be standing some 
afternoon in the living-room window looking down 
the street watching Terry light the street lamps and 
suddenly see him walking towards her ! And now — 
oh, it just couldn’t be true! 

At noon Mr. Lee came home to luncheon. The 
newspaper report had been confirmed by the New 
York offices of the steamship company. He said 
this very gravely and slowly, as though he hated to 
speak the words. Peggy sat watching Kgineth in a ' 
frightened sort of way; she wished Keineth would 
cry so that she could put her arms around her to 
comfort her I But Keineth only sat very still staring 
down at her plate. 

“ I think Fll practice. Aunt Nellie,” Keineth said 
when the luncheon was finished. She had to do 
something. She walked out of the room as she 
spoke. Peggy cast an entreating look toward her 
mother. 

“ Mummy, isn’t it dreadful? What will we do? 
She acts so queer I ” 

Mrs. Lee answered very slowly. “ Keineth will 
not believe it, Peggy ! But when she does, when her 


201 


KEINETH 


loss comes to her, we must help her in every way! 
We must make her feel how much we love her and 
that she is one of us ! ” 

“ Why, what if it was our daddy,” Peggy cried. 
“Listen!” 

For from across the hall came wonderful music — 
not the lesson Keineth should be practicing, but fairy 
things ! And happy notes, too, as though Keineth’s 
own hands were trying to dispel the heavy shadows 
about her and give her comfort and hope! 

Mr. Lee was carefully reading the report of the 
disaster in the afternoon paper. 

“ You know it’s a funny thing — no one on the 
boat had seen John Randolph! Maybe ” 

“ Oh, maybe he got left ! ” cried Billy, who all 
through the tragic moments had been unusually 
silent. 

Suddenly the doorbell rang. Its clang startled 
each one of them ! The music across the hall stopped 
with a crash ! They heard Keineth flying to the door. 

In a moment she returned, holding a yellow 
envelope in her hand. Though it was addressed to 
her she carried it to Mr. Lee. 


202 


SHADOlWS 


“ Please read it,” she said in a trembling voice. 
“ I think it is from Daddy ! I — can’t ! ” 

Peggy crossed quickly to Keineth’s side and put 
one arm close about her. Mr. Lee tore open the 
cablegram, read the lines written in it, tried to speak 
and, failing, put the sheet of paper in Keineth’s 
hands. 

“ Oh ! ” Keineth cried. “ Oh ! ” Something like 
a laugh caught in her throat. 

Changed plans — did not sail on boat. Thank God ! 

John Randolph. 

Both of Peggy’s arms flew around her now ; they 
hugged one another and both cried. And Aunt 
Nellie was crying, too, and Mr. Lee had to wipe his 
eyes. Billy was saying over and over, “ Didn’t I 
just have a hunch, now? ” 

The shadows lifted from their hearts, the chil- 
dren listened while Mr. Lee read to them the full 
account of the disaster which had stirred every 
nation of the globe. Billy and Peggy asked many 
questions, but Keineth was very silent. There were 
other little girls whose fathers had gone down into 
the sea — ^her heart went out to them in deepest pity. 

203 


KEINETH 


“ I feel as though this morning was weeks ago,” 
she said afterwards as she and Peggy curled upon 
the window seat with some sewing. From outside 
the sun was shining through the bare branches of the 
trees, making dancing figures on the polished floor. 
Keineth sighed. “ It makes one realize how un- 
happy lots and lots of people are.” 

“And it makes you feel as though you could do 
anything to help them,” answered Peggy, staring 
thoughtfully out of the window where on the city 
street humanity surged backward and forward in all 
the forms of joy and sorrow known by God’s 
children. 


CHAPTER XXI 
PILOT GOES AWAY 

Pilot’s dog-life had fallen into pleasant paths. 
His days were one happy round of comfortable 
hours, spent close to the big fireplace or at Billy’s 
heels. He slept on an old blanket in the hallway 
outside of Billy’s door. His friends were Billy’s 
friends and their dogs — Pilot was loyal and demo- 
cratic to the end of his stubby tail. His duties were 
few and pleasant — to guard his master and his 
master’s family, to keep the next-door cat away from 
his door and to inspect daily the refuse barrels in 
the backyards of his street. If he had a sorrow it 
was that he could not go to school with the children, 
but he always went with them to the corner, lifted 
his paw for a parting shake, watched them disappear 
from sight, and trotted home to wait for the hour 
when they would return. Twice daily Nora fed 
him choice scraps and bones which he ate from a 
plate in the back hall, and if occasionally someone 
spoke sharply to him or rebuked him for thought- 
205 


KEINETH 


lessly lying upon one of the chairs or the davenport, 
the sting was always softened by a pat on his head. 
What hardships he had had in the past had been 
forgotten — he had no concern for the future! 

Of course Pilot could not always understand the 
language his master spoke. He read mostly by signs. 
So, one morning, when he saw Billy and Peggy and 
Keineth making preparations for some out-of-door 
pleasure, he stood eagerly at Billy’s heels, wagging 
his tail to tell his master that he was ready, too. 

“ We can’t take him on the street-car,” Peggy 
complained. 

“And he might get lost in the woods,” Keineth 
added. 

Now Pilot could not know that the children were 
putting on heavy rubbers and warm sweaters under 
their coats because they were going to “ hike ” into 
the woods to see if the sap was beginning to run. 
And from their excited remarks he could not reason 
that, to get to the woods, they would have to take 
the street-car to the city line and dogs were not 
allowed on the street-cars. It was Saturday, and 
Saturday to Pilot meant a whole day with Billy ! So 
206 


PILOT GOES AWAY 

when they were quite ready he dashed ahead to the 
door. 

“ You can’t go Pilot. Go back ! ” Billy said 
sternly. 

He stood very still and watched them disappear 
through the door, giving only one little whimper. 
They did not even say good-by; he heard their 
merry voices slowly die away. Then he lay down 
on the floor with one eye on the closed door. 

But even the most faithful will not wait forever. 
The sound of Nora’s step coaxed him into the 
kitchen. It was quite nice there — the sun was shining 
across the white floor and something on the stove 
smelled very good. Nora was singing, too, which 
meant that he could coax a little and get in her way. 
After a while she gave him a whole cookie — he felt 
happier ! 

A little later, having wandered several times 
through the empty rooms of the house and found 
no one, he started out of doors in search of some 
amusement. He chased the cat to the veranda roof 
from which she refused to descend. He saw a friend 
of Billy’s, so he left the cat to walk with him to the 
corner. He carefully examined some boxes that 
207 


KEINETH 


were piled there, then he made friends with a stray 
terrier who stopped to exchange greetings with him. 
Pilot liked the terrier, together they trotted down the 
street, block after block. 

He did not notice a big limousine car that passed 
and re-passed him — to him these motor cars were 
of no interest excepting to keep out from under their 
wheels. But when it stopped suddenly at the curb 
and an old man climbed out, calling ‘‘ Jacky, Jacky ! ’’ 
he paused. 

The old man was beckoning to his chauffeur and 
talking in an excited voice. 

Come and look at him! I know it's Jacky," 
he was saying. 

At the name a memory stirred in Pilot's mind. 
He advanced slowly to the man. The man held out 
his hand and called again, Jacky," and Pilot went 
to him and laid his nose in the palm of the man's 
hand. 

It’s Jacky, it's Jacky," the old man cackled. 

He'd always do that when I called him ! Look at 
his ears — one got torn and I had a stitch taken in 
it 1 Look and see, Briggs, my eyes are so bad." 

208 


PILOT GOES AWAY 


Briggs pushed back the hair on Pilot’s ears and 
found the scar. The old man was very joyful. 

“ He was stolen from me two years ago! Look 
on his collar, Briggs.” 

Briggs read aloud the address on the collar. 

“ We’ll take him there right away, Briggs 1 Come 
on, Jacky, my boy 1 ” 

But Pilot considered this going a little too far — 
he objected, at which the man Briggs lifted him and 
placed him in the automobile. He was far too polite 
to struggle for his freedom, but he put his paws upon 
the door and barked a vigorous protest. 

Mrs. Lee had just returned from shopping and 
answered the bell herself. Across her mind flashed 
immediately the explanation of the strange group on 
her doorstep. In a few words she told the old man 
the story of Pilot’s coming into their family. As he 
listened he nodded several times. 

“ I cared more for that dog than anything on 
earth,” he told her. “He was always with me! 
When he was stolen I couldn’t get over it. Madam — 
just couldn’t get over it! Felt as if I’d lost my only 
friend!” 

14 


209 


KEINETH 


Mrs. Lee wished she could feel sympathetic, but 
she was thinking of Billy! 

“ Now let him go, Briggs, and you watch him. 
Madam ! ” 

Briggs released his hold of Pilot’s collar. Pilot 
leaped upon Mrs. Lee joyfully, tore down the length 
of the hall and back and then stood a little apart, 
eyeing suspiciously the strange group. 

“ Come, Jacky, come Jacky I ” cackled the old 
man, holding out his hand. 

And Pilot, above all else, was faithful I Slowly, 
reluctantly, he went towards the outstretched hand 
and laid his nose in it. 

“ Always did that when I called him ! See his 
ear. Madam — I had a stitch taken in it when he 
tore it ! See the scar ? ” 

There was no doubt in Mrs. Lee’s mind but that 
the dog belonged to the man. 

“ My children are going to be heartbroken,” she 
commenced slowly. “ Could we buy ” 

The old man snorted angrily. “ Buy Jacky? 
Don’t you know he’s a very valuable dog? And 
anyway, you haven’t enough money to buy his com- 
panionship from me 1 Your children can get another 


210 


PILOT GOES AWAY 


dog, Madam, but for me there is only one Jacky! ” 
As he spoke with fumbling fingers he drew out a 
card and a dollar bill. “ Pay the boy his dollar, 
Madam. Take him down, Briggs. Very sorry. 
Madam, but good-day ! ” 

Briggs pulled on the collar and Pilot went down 
the steps very slowly. He knew in his dog-mind 
that something was happening! He turned and 
looked appealingly at Mrs. Lee. She was standing 
very still and was not helping him at all I He tried 
to tell her to tell Billy that he had to do his duty and 
when this man called him Jacky he knew he had to 
go, but he would always love his young master best ! 

So when the children returned to the house, 
cheeks red with the wind, splashed with mud, tired 
and happy, there was no Pilot to greet them ! 

Mrs. Lee told them the story; tried to tell it in 
such a way that the children would feel sorry for 
the lonely old man who had been so happy at finding 
his dog! 

But Billy raged — ^his high-pitched voice choking 
over the sob that struggled in his throat. He threw 
the dollar and the card savagely to the floor. 

“ Wouldn’t you have thought the old thing would 

2II 


KEINETH 

have at least given Billy a reward ! ” cried Peggy 
indignantly. 

Though she did not answer this, Mrs. Lee 
smiled, as she recalled the reluctance with which the , 
old man had extracted even the one-dollar bill from 
his pocket. 

“ I don’t want any old reward — I just want ■ 
Pilot! If we hadn’t gone away and left him that 
old man would never have found him,” Billy wailed. 

“ Couldn’t we buy him. Mother? ” 

“ The dog is worth a great deal of money. I’m ■ 
afraid we could scarcely afford it, my dear, even if 
the man would part with him. Billy must look at 
the thing in a sensible way.” She laid her hand on 
Billy’s shoulder. “ Pilot will miss you as much as 
you do him, my son ! But you have a great many 
other things to make you happy and I should judge 
that that old man had nothing ! ” 

Keineth went up to her room to take off her 
muddy shoes. On her bureau she found a letter 
Nora had placed there. In the corner of the envelope 
was printed in large letters : “ Brown and Company.” 

She tore it open with fingers trembling with ;• 
excitement. J 


212 


PILOT GOES AWAY 

It was from the music publishers, telling her that 
they would publish her “ Castle of Dreams,” and for 
its purchase had enclosed a check. 

And Keineth, unfolding the small slip of paper, 
saw written there: “The Sum of Twenty-five 
Dollars.” 

“Peggy! Peg-gy!” 


CHAPTER XXII 
KEINETH’S GIFT ; 

Twenty-five dollars! To Keineth it seemed 
like a fortune! 

She had never thought much about money. She ’ 
knew some people were very poor — she had often ! 
felt sorry for them as she watched them near the 
Square in New York. And she knew some were • 
very rich, for Aunt Josephine talked of them. She i 
had always had all the money she wanted, because j 
she had never wanted very much. She supposed j 
Peggy and the others had all they wanted, too. Each i 
week Mr. Lee gave to each one of them a small i 
allowance and whenever they managed to save any- ; 
thing from this each of them put it in her bank. 
Keineth supposed that the Lees were not as rich as 
Aunt Josephine and not as poor as Francesca’s family ; 
next door to her old home, but it didn’t seem to 
matter at all, because she did not think that the i 
Lees wanted to be rich, anyway. They never talked ■ 
of anything in terms of dollars and cents ! . 


KEINETH’S GIFT 


Twenty-five dollars — that seemed enough to 
Keineth to buy everything anyone could want ! 

Keineth and Peggy had carefully kept the 
precious secret of the “ Castle of Dreams.” For a 
few weeks they had watched the mail each day, then 
the holiday fun had filled their minds and the secret 
was forgotten. As the weeks passed and Keineth 
heard nothing she had almost given up all hope of 
selling her music and her great ambitions had taken 
a sad fall. Peggy had urged her to consult her 
music master about it, but after one or two attempts 
Keineth found she had not the courage. 

And now a check had come! Twenty-five whole 
dollars ! 

“ Peggy ! Peggy ! ” she called, unable to wait 
one moment to share the good news. 

It was a very excited family that listened to their 
story at dinner time. Even Billy, red-eyed, forgot 
his own sorrow. Everyone had to hold the check 
and read it ! Then each one suggested some way for 
Keineth to spend her money! 

And as is the way with all fortunes, sooner or 
later they become a burden! Already, even while 
they made merry over the check, Keineth was be- 


KEINETH 


ginning to worry as to what she should do with it ! 
Of course Mr. Lee had advised her putting it in the 
bank, but that did not seem like much f un ! If Daddy 
were at home she would buy something for him with 
it or she might send it to Tante to help the poor 
children that were suffering from the war, 

“ Give it to the Red Cross ! ” Peggy suggested 
grandly. 

“ Buy a bicycle! ” said Alice, “ or one of those 
cunning electric stoves that we can cook on 1 ” 

“ If I had it I’d buy Pilot! ” put in Billy sadly. 
“ I’d like to do something with it,” said Keineth 
slowly, “ that would make somebody just awfully 

happy, because ” She looked down the length 

of the table and realized suddenly how dear to her 
these Lees had grown and what this home was to 
her. “ Because I’m so happy here! ” 

And even while she was speaking she decided 
just what she would do ! But she would tell no one, 
not even Peggy ! 

She would buy Pilot for Billy! Mrs. Lee had 
said they could not afford it ! What good luck that 
her check had come just at the right time! 

216 


KEINETH’S GIFT 


After dinner she searched for and found the old 
man’s card. It was soiled and crumpled from Billy’s 
angry fingers. She hid it away with the check. She 
must wait until Monday. 

Keineth had to ride on the street-car a very long 
way before she reached the address which the card 
gave. Then she found herself before a great iron 
fence and had to ring twice before the big gate in 
the fence opened. It opened quite by itself and it 
clanged shut behind her, startling her with its noise. 
There seemed to be a million steps leading to the 
big bronze door and her feet moved like tons of lead ! 
She had to ring again. The door swung back and a 
sour-faced man in dark livery faced her. 

“ Is — ^is Mr. Grandison at home? ” she asked in a 
voice so strange that she scarcely recognized it 
herself. 

The sour-faced man looked very hard at her. 

“ Who is it, miss ? ” he asked wonderingly, as 
though few people came to that door for Mr. 
Grandison. 

“ I’m Keineth Randolph. I must see him, 
please ! ” 


217 


KEINETH 


“ He never sees anyone, miss, but you can go 
in. Only I wouldn’t advise you to bother him very 
, much because he’s bad this morning with his 
rheumatism ! ” 

He was telling her this in a whisper as he led 
her through the long hall. Keineth thought it quite 
the longest, widest hall she had ever seen and she 
walked very fast past the big doors that opened into 
dark empty rooms that looked like great caverns! 
If a giant, bending his great head, had leaped 
through one of the heavy door-frames she would 
have thought it quite to be expected ! 

The servant drew back a door and Keineth saw 
a long room full of books. At the other end, close 
to a table, sat an old, old man. Then she saw some- 
thing move suddenly and Pilot dashed at her from 
a corner and leaped upon her with great whimpering, 
licking her hands and face and even her shoes. 

“What’s this? Come here, Jacky! Who are 
you? Who let you in here? ” roared the old man, 
glaring at Keineth. 

Keineth, terribly frightened, advanced slowly 
towards him, one hand on the dog’s head. 

218 


KEINETH’S GIFT 


“ I live at the Lees’ where you found Pilot. We 
all miss him so terribly, especially Billy, that I came 
to buy him back ! ” 

“You did, did you? Well, nobody has money 
enough to buy him.” 

Keineth was so indignant at his disagreeable 
manner that she forgot her fright. 

“ I know the Lees haven’t money enough, be- 
cause they have so many children and buy lots of 
things for them and give them a good time! But 
I’m going to buy Pilot for them! I know Pilot 
couldn’t be happy here, anyway, it’s so — so big and 
horrid and you’re so — cross — after having a happy 
home with the Lees ! ” 

Pilot, as though to tell her that was very true, 
snuggled his nose under her arm and wagged his tail. 

“ I’ve got twenty-five dollars,” finished Keineth 
triumphantly, “ and I can spend all of it because I 
earned it myself — writing music ! ” 

He turned and looked hard at her. Her fury 
seemed to have amused him. 

“ Music — you write music ! A child like you ! ” 

Keineth stepped closer to him. 

319 


KEINETH 


“ Yes. Do you like music? ’’ 

The old man answered very slowly. ‘‘ It was 
all I cared for once upon a time ! Let me see your 
eyes ! ’’ He reached out a wrinkled hand and drew 
her towards him. They are blue — like hers were ! 
Child, years and years ago I loved a young girl very 
much — ^and she taught me to love music! But she 
went out of my life and left me with nothing but 
loneliness ! ’’ 

Keineth thought of the great empty house and 
felt very sorry for him. 

‘‘ What was her name? she asked softly. 

‘'A pretty name — like she was ! ’’ he muttered, his 
eyes fastened on the child’s face. It was as if some- 
thing he saw there was awakening the memories. 
‘‘ It was Keineth/’ 

Why, that is my name! ” 

Keineth — Keineth what ? ” he cried. 

Keineth Randolph.” 

You are John Randolph’s girl — her son’s girl.” 
You mean my grandmother? That — lady — 
you loved was my daddy’s mother ? ” 

The old man was half laughing, half crying. 


220 


KEINETH’S GIFT 


He held Keineth’s arms with his trembling fingers. 

“Of course — the same blue eyes — and music! 
How your grandmother loved music! How her 
fingers could play, make sounds that’d tear the heart 
right out of you ! ” He shook his head. “And she 
wouldn’t have me — my money couldn’t buy her! 
After she died I stood in the Square and watched 
them take her away from the house — saw the flowers 
I had sent go with her! I saw the man she had 
chosen instead of me walk out, too. He had two 
children by the hand — ^the little fellow was your 
father. I went away from New York then — — ” 
He drew his hands across his eyes as though to 
brush away the haunting pictures. “And you’re 
Keineth ! ” he finished. 

Keineth told him of her daddy and of her coming 
from New York to live with the Lees until her 
father returned. She had almost forgotten Pilot in 
her deep sympathy for this lonely old man who had 
loved her father’s mother — ^and had loved her for so 
many, many years! But Pilot suddenly barked! 

“ Pilot thinks he belongs to us because he once 
saved my life,” Keineth explained, going on, then. 


221 


KEINETH 


to tell the story of her narrow escape from drown- 
ing. Perhaps the old man heard her, though his face 
still wore a far-away look as if he had not yet been 
able to bring himself back from that dear past the 
child’s eyes had awakened. 

“And so I’d like to buy him, please,” Keineth 
finished, laying her check before him. 

For a long time the old man stared at it, while 
Keineth and Pilot waited. 

“ He loves you better than he does me! You’re 
right — ^he wasn’t happy here — ^he’s cried and cried! 
I can’t keep even a dog’s love! Take him.” He 
slowly lifted the check, read it, turned it over, folded 
it and put it in his pocket. 

Then Keineth felt very sorry for the old maa 
She felt, too, that now in some way or other he 
belonged to her, though not exactly related. 

“ Won’t you come home to lunch with me? Then 
you can meet Peggy and the others and see how 
glad they are to get Pilot back ! They’ll be awfully 
glad to see you, really! Please don’t be lonely any 
more — for — ^I’ll be your friend ! ” 

He had risen slowly to his feet, towering over 
222 




KEINETH’S GIFT 


her. He looked down at the bright face. Keineth 
slipped her hand into his. 

“ Oh, please come — it’ll be such fun,” and she 
gave his fingers a coaxing, friendly squeeze. 

The sour-faced servant muttered, “ Well, I 
never! ” under his breath, when he saw his master 
walk through the door to his waiting car, holding 
the little girl’s hand and listening to her chatter with 
a smile! It was the strangest sight he had ever 
beheld in this very strange house ! 

But it was a stranger sight for the Lees when 
the big limousine drew up at their curb and Pilot 
dashed from its door, followed by Keineth and a 
very, very old man who leaned one hand upon 
Keineth’s shoulder. 

“ Pilot ! ” cried Billy, who had seen them through 
the window. 

“And that old man ! ” echoed Peggy. 

In the hall Billy was on his knees with his arms 
around Pilot’s neck. 

“ Dear, dear old Pilot ! ” he was saying over and 
over. 

Mrs. Lee, concealing her amazement when 


223 


KEINETH 


Keineth quaintly introduced my friend, Mr. 
Grandison,'’<greeted him cordially and by her smile 
and gracious manner made the old man immediately 
feel at home. At the table she placed him between 
Keineth and Peggy, and Peggy found that he was 
not such a cross old man after all ! 

“ It’s just like a story, Ken,” she said after he 
had gone away and Keineth had given them an 
account of her morning’s adventure. “ You have 
found a fairy grandfather! But wasn’t it scrump- 
tious to see His Aged Grandness eating hash? ” 
Well, I guess Keineth’s money has been well 
spent,” added Mrs. Lee, looking fondly at the little 
girl. ‘‘ For I think — ^besides making Billy very 
happy, it has opened a new life to a very lonely 
old man ! ” 

'' I’ll never forget what Ken has done,” said 
Billy solemnly, as though he was taking a vow. 

She’s just all right and I’d like to see anyone that 
says she ain’t ! ” 

‘‘ Billy — ^your English I ” pleaded his mother. 

But Keineth blushed with pleasure. She knew 
she had won Billy’s everlasting friendship! 

224 


KEINETH’S GIFT 


That evening a boy brought to the door a huge 
package addressed to Miss Keineth Randolph. It 
was a set of beautifully bound books, “ The Lives of 
the Masters,” and with them came a little note 
written in a queer, old-fashioned handwriting. 

May these books give instruction, inspiration and 
courage to one whose feet are on the threshold. They 
are bought with the money you unselfishly spent to give a 
boy back his dog. 

Your devoted friend, 

Wilfred Grandison. 


CHAPTER XXIII 

SURPRISES 


“ Why, I just can’t believe that I’m Peggy Lee! ” 
Peggy stood in the aisle of a sleeping car and looked 
up and down its length. Keineth, from her superior 
knowledge of sleeping cars, was pointing out to 
Peggy its arrangements. Both girls were dressed in 
new coats and hats and carried with them the bag 
Aunt Josephine had given Keineth and in which they 
had packed their nightgowns and toilet articles. 

For they were starting for Washington I 

Two days before Mr. Lee had come home and 
asked the children what would be the biggest sur- 
prise they could imagine! Of course they had 
guessed all sorts of things and he had teased them 
for quite a little while over it ! Then, very quietly, he 
had said : 

“ Do you think you would like to make a little 
trip to Washington ? ” 

Keineth had not been able to speak. Peggy, 
226 


SURPRISES 


jumping from her chair, rushed at her father and 
threw both arms about his neck. 

“ All of us ? ” she cried between hugs. 

“ No, this time we’ll leave mother home with 
Billy and Alice. Then the next time they’ll go.” 

Peggy’s eyes swept over Billy’s and Alice’s dis- 
appointed faces. 

“ Oh, I wish we could all go ! ” 

“ Mother’ll make it up to them, my dear. I’ll 
wager right now all sorts of nice plans are floating 
around in her head. Well, can you be ready? ” 

“ Can we ! ” they cried in chorus. 

The hours then were full of excited preparations. 
The new clothes had to be purchased. ” Keineth 
may be invited to meet the President,” Mrs. Lee had 
laughingly explained, as she held two pretty hats, 
one in each hand, and considered them carefully. 

“ Oh, wouldn’t that be wonderful! ” Keineth 
whispered. She wanted to ask him so many ques- 
tions about Daddy — she would tell him that she 
could keep a secret ! 

Billy gave them a thousand instructions. They 
must remember everything they saw to tell him! 
They must climb the big monument and walk up the 
227 


KEINETH 


Capitol steps and hear the echo in the rotunda of the 
Capitol Building. They must go to Camp Meyer 
and to Arlington and to Mount Vernon and be sure 
to see Washington’s swords! 

“And the White House china,” Mrs. Lee added. 
“ It must be as good as a lesson in history to look 
at that exhibit in the White House! They’d tell 
the tastes of the different ones who used them ! I 
can picture pretty Dolly Madison ordering all new 
china because the pattern of the old did not please 
her!” 

Billy broke in: “ I’d want to go to the Treasury 
Building and see all the money and the watchmen 
that guard the building from little watch-houses! 
And the big machine where they destroy all the old 
money! Four men have keys and they go and 
unlock it and put the money in it and it gets ground 
and ground by sharp knives until it’s just a pulp! 
And then they sell the pulp ! I wish I had one of 
those keys ! ” Billy was very excited. 

“And I want to see the Indian Exhibit at the 
National Museum,” declared Peggy. 

“ You will, my dear, and a great many other 
things of interest.” 


238 


SURPRISES 


Little wonder that she could scarcely believe that 
she was Peggy Lee! As the train pulled away 
Keineth was very quiet. She was recalling how 
often her Daddy had told her of the interesting 
places in the National Capital and how often he 
had said, “ Some day we’ll go there together ! ” And 
now she was really going, but Daddy was far away. 

“ Well, aren’t you children going to take off 
your things and stay awhile? ” asked Mr. Lee, com- 
ing in from a smoke on the platform. 

They laughed and began to lay aside their wraps. 
“ I can’t picture myself sleeping on that funny little 
shelf,” Peggy declared. “ What if I should roll 
out!” 

There were a number of other people on the 
car. The children watched them closely and tried 
to do whatever they did. Peggy’s eyes grew round 
with interest as she saw the porter deftly spread 
out mattresses and blankets and make cosy beds 
where nothing but seats had been. The girls in- 
sisted upon sharing the same berth and drew lots 
“ for position,” as Peggy put it. Keineth drew the 
place by the window and was soon cuddled there. 
And though they had declared that they were going 
229 


KEINETH 


to lie awake for a long time watching out of the 
window, their heads had scarcely touched the pillow 
when the motion of the train lulled them to sleep. 

Then the night would have passed like any night 
at home, only that Pegg}^ did fall out of bed ! 

She awakened suddenly to find herself in a heap 
in the aisle of the car with the brakeman, a swinging 
lantern in his hand, bending over her. 

“ Well, bless my stars! ” he was saying. 

It took a moment or two for Peggy to realize 
where she was and what had happened ! Then, torn 
between a desire to laugh at herself and to cry with 
chagrin, she clambered back into the berth and 
snuggled very close to Keineth. 

It was too funny not to tell Keineth, who had 
wakened, but after she told her she made Keineth 
promise, crossing her heart over and over, that she 
would never, never, never tell Billy that Peggy had 
rolled out of bed ! 

“Where are we? It isn’t a bit different from 
home,” the girls cried as they stood the next morning 
with Mr. Lee viewing from the platform the country 
through which they were speeding. 

“ This is Maryland. In just half an hour we’ll 
230 


SURPRISES 

be in Washington. We’ll wait and eat breakfast at 
the hotel there.” 

Mr. Lee was acting curiously excited and impa- 
tient. He looked at his watch several times. “ On 
time,” the girls heard him say once or twice — as if 
it made any difference. Before they were in the 
city he told them to put on their wraps. 

“ We’ll be the first ones off,” he said. 

It was only a moment then before they had rolled 
into the station shed. They stepped from the train 
and walked a long way down between rows of cars. 
A great many people seemed hurrying in every direc- 
tion. There was a dull roar echoing through the 
vaulted smoky space pierced by the loud voices of 
the trainmen giving their orders and the occasional 
clang of a bell. Then they passed through a little 
iron gate into the station. Keineth, clinging to Mr. 
Lee’s arm, thought it quite the biggest place she 
had ever seen! Every step made an echo and 
though there were crowds of people there did not 
seem to be many because there was so much room ! 
Mr. Lee gave some checks to a porter, then stood 
looking up and down the great space as though 
expecting to see someone. Peggy was just whisper- 
231 


KEINETH 

ing something in Keineth’s ear when Keineth gave 
a dear, joyoiis cry. 

For there, stepping out from a little group, walk- 
ing straight toward them, a smile on his tanned face, 
both arms extended as though they could not reach 
her quickly enough, was her dear, dear daddy! 


CHAPTER XXIV 
MR. PRESIDENT 
Her own dear father! 

Keineth had not realized until then how very 
dear he was to her ! She clung to him as though 
she could not bear to ever lose her hold. A woman 
waiting in the station was watching the little scene, 
and turned away, wiping her eyes. And Keineth 
did not know whether she wanted to laugh or to cry 1 
So this was Mr. Lee’s big surprise! He had 
known John Randolph was in Washington! 

“ This is Peggy,” Keineth managed finally to 
say. At which John Randolph put his arm about 
Peggy and kissed her, too! 

Mr. Lee said something about breakfast, and 
Keineth’s father hurried them into a waiting taxicab. 
And as they drove away Keineth was so busy look- 
ing at her father’s dear face that she did not notice 
the Capitol, its noble dome outlined against the blue 
morning sky. But Peggy gave an excited little 
shriek. 


233 


KEINETH 


“ Oh— look— look!” 

So, with her hand in her father’s, Keineth saw 
Washington 1 He told the driver to go slowly while 
he pointed out to them the buildings they passed. 
The whole city lay bathed in sunshine that brought 
with it the balminess of real springtime for which 
they waited so long in the North. Robins were 
singing in the trees, so gladly that Keineth thought 
that even they must have guessed how happy she was ! 

Keineth and Peggy listened while John Randolph 
told Mr. Lee of his trip home across the ocean — 
how to escape the submarines of the Germans they 
had run cautiously, at half-speed, as in a fog, with 
look-outs posted all along the ship’s decks and all 
lights out! Their voices were very serious as they 
talked and Keineth noticed for the first time that 
her father’s face, under its tan, looked worn and 
tired, as though he had been working very hard. 

But each time that his eyes came back to her 
face they lighted with a smile. 

“ I can hardly believe that this is my little girl,” 
he said to Mr. Lee. “ Her stay with you has done 
wonders for her ! ” And what he said was very 
true, for the year had changed Keineth from the 
234 


MR. PRESIDENT 


shy-eyed, delicate child he had left to a happy, 
round-cheeked, strong-limbed girl. The pretty 
simple dress she wore had the becoming touch of 
color that Tante used to think unsuitable, and her 
fair hair, drawn loosely back from her forehead 
and fastened with a barrette, hung in heavy waves 
over her shoulders. 

At the hotel after breakfast Keineth’s father 
opened his trunk and took from it a box of gifts 
he had collected from every country he had visited. 
A carved box from Japan, a gay Chinese robe from 
Pekin, dolls of all sorts, brass plates from Egypt, 
embroidered scarfs from Constantinople, coral from 
Italy and other treasures over which Keineth and 
Peggy went into ecstasies of delight! 

“ For us?” she cried to her father. 

He smiled — ^her “ us ” meant to him that Keineth 
had found at last the true joy of friends. 

“ Divide them as you wish, my dear,” he an- 
swered. Thereupon the two girls sat down, cross- 
legged upon the floor and commenced assorting the 
gifts into little piles — for “Aunt Nellie,” for “ Bar- 
bara,” the Japanese dolls for Alice, and, of course, 
the carved dagger from Petrograd, for Billy! 

235 


KEINETH 


“Oh, were ever girls as happy as we are?” 
Peggy cried. 

Later Mr. Lee broke in upon this pleasant occu- 
pation. “If we are here to see Washington we’d 
better start out! Keineth — ^after luncheon your 
father wants to take you for a little walk — Peggy 
and I will go to the National Museum.” 

So it was that Keineth, trim in her new hat and 
coat, found herself early in the afternoon walking 
slowly down the “Avenue of the Presidents,” holding 
her father’s hand. They said little, each felt too 
happy to talk much, time enough for the stories later. 

Suddenly through the trees of Lafayette Park, 
all a-quiver with their new spring leaves, Keineth 
glimpsed the stately lines of the White House. 

She stopped short. “ Daddy, is that where the 
President lives ? ” 

Mr. Randolph smiled. “Yes, my dear! And 
we are going there now to call — at his request ! ” 

So Keineth was really going to see Mr. President ! 

She felt very excited as she walked past the 
policeman guarding the gates and up the winding 
avenue leading to the great columns before the door. 
Through the branches of the trees the sun was 
236 


MR. PRESIDENT 


shining slant-wise against the square-paned win- 
dows, making tiny sparks of fire. Another police- 
man at the door halted them. Keineth thought it 
too bad that the President of the United States 
should have to be guarded in this manner — for who 
could want to harm him ? Then they were ushered 
into the entrance hall, where a servant took the card 
Mr. Randolph offered. 

For Keineth the simple stateliness of the place 
had an atmosphere of romance. Staring curiously 
about her she went slowly through the spacious cor- 
ridors to an oval-shaped room whose walls and 
windows were hung in heavy blue silk. The sun- 
light streamed through the windows across the 
highly polished floor and glinted through the crys- 
tals of the great chandelier hanging from the ceiling. 
From between the heavy 'blue curtains Keineth 
caught a glimpse of the green lawn outside, sloping 
down to the stretches of the Park — all adot with 
dandelions. 

Her father pointed out to her the gold clock on 
the mantel and told her that it had been presented 
by Napoleon the First to General Lafayette and by 
him in turn to Washington. Then as they turned 
237 


KEINETH 


to examine the bronze vases standing on either side 
of the clock a quiet voice startled them. 

“And so this is the little soldier girl ! ” 

And there across the room, one hand extended, 
stood the President of the United States ! 

Keineth tried to say something, but found that 
her tongue would not move. But President Wilson, 
not noticing her embarrassment, was shaking her 
hand and talking as though they were old friends. 

“Of course — after our letters — an introduction 
is unnecessary! I am delighted, however, to meet 
in person John Randolph’s daughter.” 

He turned then from Keineth to her father and 
Keineth felt a glow of pride in the tone of intimacy 
with which the President greeted her father. 

After they had exchanged a few words he took 
her hand and drew her towards a divan. 

“ Let us sit down here and have a little talk. 
I wonder if you know, my dear girl, what a wonder- 
ful man your father is.” 

Keineth smiled at this ! President Wilson, pat- 
ting her hand upon his knee, went on : 

“ His work for us is not done, either I And I 
239 



“so THIS IS THE LITTLE SOLDIER GIRL!" 




MR. PRESIDENT 


am going to ask you to help me, Miss Keineth. I 
want him in my official family — I need his judgment 
and advice — need it badly! If he tries to refuse me 
then you must make him do what I want him to do ! 
Wouldn’t you like to live in Washington? ” 

“ Oh — yes I ” cried Keineth, then she stopped 
short. “ But — it wouldn’t have to be a secret, 
would it ? ” 

The President broke into a hearty laugh. “ No, 
indeed, my dear!” Then, more seriously, “You 
were very brave to help us guard so carefully his 
journeying. It was necessary that it should be kept 
a secret because in every land where he went there 
were bitter enemies to the work he was trying to 
do — enemies who, if they had had one word of the 
mission upon which he was going about, would 
have done everything within their power to defeat 
its purpose, even to taking his life without one 
moment’s hesitation ! Keineth, this is a funny 
world. It is made up of big nations and small 
nations and they struggle against one another like 
so many bad, heedless boys fighting in an alley.” 

“ I know ! ” cried Keineth, bright-eyed. “ When 
they ought to be living like nice families in a quiet 
239 


KEINETH 


street, each one keeping its own yard clean from 
rubbish and the doorsteps washed.” She used her 
father’s words with careful precision. 

President Wilson turned to John Randolph. 
“ The child has described it, exactly ! What an 
ideal! Do you think we’ll ever reach it?” Then, 
to Keineth, “And that is the mission that took your 
father abroad — to lay before the peoples of those 
other lands this plan of democracy; to show them 
the picture of how we all — as nations — ^might live 
as you have described it, like thrifty families on a 
clean-kept street, some in finer houses than others, 
perhaps, but each one with its door-step clean and 
its corners well cleared out. Well — well, in your 
lifetime you may come to it, child. And when you 
do — remember that the way was opened by the 
message your father carried 1 ” 

They talked a little longer of things Keineth 
could not understand, though she listened with rapt 
attention while her father spoke of the Emperor of 
Japan and the Czar of Russia as though they were 
just ordinary men! 

President Wilson walked with them to the door; 
he shook hands and begged them to come again ! 

240 


MR. PRESIDENT 


“ I should like some day to show you around 
Washington myself, Miss Keineth,” he said, pat- 
ting her shoulder. Then as they walked out toward 
the street gates Keineth turned back and saw him 
watching from the open door. She waved her hand 
impulsively and he lifted his in a farewell salute. 

Keineth drew in a very deep breath: as Peggy 
would say, “ Who could believe that she was little 
Keineth Randolph ? ” 


CHAPTER XXV 
THE CASTLE OF DREAMS 


When her father suggested that they let the 
sightseeing wait and take a walk, Keineth was de- 
lighted. She wanted more than anything else right 
then to talk and talk and talk to her daddy ! There 
was so much to tell him! 

'' Wedl have plenty of time to see all the inter- 
esting things,” Mr. Randolph said. We’ll stay 
here a week or two longer.” 

Peggy, too? ” asked Keineth. 

‘‘ Peggy, too, of course! ” 

Oh, what ftm! ” cried Keineth, squeezing her 
father’s hand with both of hers. She fairly danced 
along by his side, so that he had to walk very fast 
to keep up with her light feet. ’Way across the Park 
through the trees they could see the waters of the 
Potomac gleaming blue, and beyond the hills of 
Arlington. Two weeks — ^her eyes shone — two weeks 
with Daddy and Peggy! 

‘‘ You know, Daddy, that Peggy is my very best 
242 


THE CASTLE OF DREAMS 

friend!” Keineth said very solemnly. She com- 
menced to tell him of Overlook and the happy sum- 
mer days— of Stella, whom she had seen several 
times during the winter and had learned to love — of 
Grandma Sparks and her quaint old home — of Mr. 
Cadowitz and the hours in his queer studio — of the 
Jenkins cousins and the little Penny girls. He 
listened with a smile, perhaps not always able to 
follow her excited chatter, but certain from it that 
Keineth had found what he had hoped she would 
find when he had sent her to the Lees. 

Then Keineth thought of a confession she must 
make. 

“ Is it dreadful. Daddy, but I have forgotten to 
be lonesome for Tante? I am ashamed because I do 
not think of her oftener. Where do you suppose 
she is ? ” 

“ I saw her, my dear ! Think what a coincidence 
it was ! When I was in Paris one of the secretaries 
from the American Embassy took me around to visit 
the soup kitchens they have opened up there to feed 
the needy children of the soldiers at the front. At 
the very first one we went into, a woman in charge 
came up to greet us — ^and it was good Madame 


243 


KEINETH 


Henri ! I might have known she’d be doing some- 
thing like that ! She knew me, of course — the tears 
ran down her cheeks as she clasped my hand. She 
couldn’t say a word at first. She herself took us 
through the place and as it was at noontime, we 
stayed to see her hungry family. It was a sight I’ll 
never forget — women, shivering in ragged clothing, 
with babes in their arms and gaunt, unhappy faces 
and eyes that looked at you as if they were eternally 
asking something and afraid to ask ! Most of them 
had some scrap of dingy crepe somewhere about 
them — had lost their men at the battle-front! And 
little children gulping down the hot soup as though 
they were starved I Tante said it was the only meal 
most of them had during the day. After her work 
was over she and I went into a little room to talk. 
I knew she wanted to ask me about you — ‘ her baby,’ 
she called you. When I told her you were well and 
happy she broke down and sobbed ‘ thank God ! ’ 

“ She told me that her mother was dead and that 
her brother’s wife and her little family were on a 
farm in northern France. When they did not need 
her longer she had gone to Paris to help. 

244 


THE CASTLE OF DREAMS 


“ ‘ Give her my love,’ she said to me — I knew she 
meant you, ‘ Keep her safe ! It is my one comfort 
in these terrible days that she is not suffering! I 
love America — but I can never go back — ^my work 
is here 1 ’ I knew then that until the end Madame 
Henri would stick to her post and help wherever 
she could do the most good. She is a noble woman ! ” 

Keineth sighed. “ It doesn’t seem right to be 
SO happy when others are not,” she said, troubled. 

“ But remember what she said — ^because you are 
happy is the one bright spot in Madame Henri’s 
life ! So it may be with others ; you can always help 
someone.” 

“ You couldn’t do anything else at the Lees’,” 
broke in Keineth, “ because Aunt Nellie is so kind 
and unselfish that we children are terribly ashamed 

to be anything else ! Daddy ” Keineth stopped 

short; for the first time it crossed her mind that 
now that her daddy had come back her visit at the 
Lees’ would end. “ Where will we live now. 
Daddy?” 

He waited a moment before he answered. 

“ I am going to ask you to decide that for your- 
self, Keineth.” 


245 


KEINETH 


Keineth remembered then the night her father 
had made her decide between Aunt Josephine and 
the Lees! How hard it had been! 

John Randolph led her to a bench. Let^s sit 
down here and talk. Ell show you two pictures, 
Keineth, and you shall choose. You heard what 
the President said; he has asked me to be in his 
Cabinet ! That is a great honor — perhaps the highest 
honor that may ever come to me! ’’ 

You'll be more than a soldier that doesn't 
wear a uniform? " 

Her father smiled at her quaint phrasing. Yes, 
much more! But, besides the honor and the work 
of the position it will mean this to us — we will have 
to take a house here in Washington and live in such 
a way that we can entertain many, many guests. My 
time will never be my own, for there will be count- 
less social demands besides the duties of the office' — I 
will be able to spend very little time with my little 
girl! But she will not mind that because she will 
have ever so many new friends and new things to 
do, too. And we're too simple to know how to live 
such a life, so there's only one thing that'd 
happen '' 


246 


THE CASTLE OF DREAMS 


Keineth was making tiny circles in the soft grass 
with the toe of her shoe. She had listened intently, 
now she interrupted quickly : “ Aunt Josephine ! ” 

“ Yes — Aunt Josephine would have to come down 
to show us how ! ” 

For some reason Keineth did not like the picture 
— and yet Daddy had said it was a great honor ! But 
Aunt Josephine 

Near the Monument the Marine Band had begtm 
its program for the first afternoon concert of the 
season. A great many people had begun to gather 
in groups on the green. The music had seemed to 
reach Keineth and her father as though it was all a 
part of the soft spring air and beauty around them — 
they had scarcely heeded it as they talked! But 
suddenly a familiar note struck Keineth’s ear. She 
lifted her head quickly. 

“ Oh, listen 1 ” she cried, clutching his arm. 
“Listen!” 

“ What is it, child ? ” He was startled by the 
look on her face. She had sprung to her feet. 

“ That — that ” she whispered as though her 

voice might drown out the soft strains of the music, 
“ that is my Castle of Dreams ! ” 

247 


KEINETH 


She lifted her hand to beg him not to speak until 
it had ended. They listened together until the last 
note died away. 

“ Beautiful, my dear, but ” 

She turned shining eyes toward him. “ I wrote 
it,” she added simply. 

“ You — you ” He stared at her in such a 

funny way that Keineth burst out laughing. “ Why, 
my dear ” 

“Aunt Nellie taught me to write music! And I 
sold this! I didn’t want to tell you until I had a 
chance to play it for you.” 

“ You — wrote^ — that? ” He seemed not able to 
really believe. “ My little girl ? ” A world of pride 
warmed the tone of his voice. 

“ Yes, and it’s such fun putting down what 
comes to my fingers! Only Mr. Cadowitz says 
that I must learn a great deal more and practice 
what the masters can teach me. And Aunt Nellie 
says, too, that I ought to wait until I have finished 
school.” 

“ Yes, they are right,” Mr. Lee put in. Then 
he caressed the small fingers that lay in his clasp. 
“ But, my dear little girl, what a joy for you some 
248 


THE CASTEE OF DREAMS 


day! It is a wonderful gift to tell your thoughts in 
music ! When you have built up a strong body and 
a good mind you can work with all your heart and 
soul!’^ 

Keineth told him then the story of Pilot and 
Mr. Grandison. Her father was deeply interested. 
He recalled that he had heard his father speak of 
him once or twice. He must have had a very lonely 
life/’ he added. ‘‘ We must see something of him 
now and then, my dear ! ” 

Oh, he will be glad 1 ” Keineth described the 
big house on the outskirts of the city where she had 
gone with her check; its lonely rooms that all his 
money could not make cheerful. That led her to tell 
of the beautiful books and how Mr. Grandison had 
one day taken her and Peggy to see Polly anna ” ; 
of riding there in the big limousine and wearing the 
precious pink dresses ! 

The afternoon sun was dropping. The concert 
had ended and the crowds were slowly moving away. 
John Randolph’s face wore its far-away look as 
though he was dreaming things. His eyes, as he 
turned them upon Keineth, were very serious. 

You know, child, we’re given things in this 


249 


KEINETH 


world — good health and fortune and gifts like your 
music — and my writing — but I don’t believe we’re 
given them just to enjoy them ourselves! We’re 
meant to share them! I haven’t told you the other 
picture, my dear ! ” 

“ Oh, no ! ” cried Keineth. How could she have 
forgotten Aunt Josephine! 

“ I’ve had a dream, Keineth, these months that 
I’ve been gone ! It’s been a dream of the little home 
we’d make in some quiet corner where I could write 
and you could grow and play. It’d be a simple 
home, but we’d have a great many friends around 
us. There’s a lot in my head I want to write, too — 
I long for time to do it ! I couldn’t help but think as 
I travelled over almost all the lands of the globe that 
people are alike after all — only some of us have 
learned things faster than others and some have a 
lot to learn. If those who see the vision could teach 
the others — well, to live, as we said, like respectable, 
happy families in a peaceful street — ^then this world 
would know a brotherhood we haven’t got now. It 
could come after this war — we could all be com- 
rades, always going forward shoulder to shoulder! 
I feel as if I want to write and write and write about 
250 


THE CASTLE OF DREAMS 


it until that picture goes all over the world ! Couldn’t 
I do more for all my fellowmen that way than giving 
up my time to the immense duties of a Cabinet 
official?” He turned a frowning face toward 
Keineth, as though from this twelve-year-old girl 
he expected help in his perplexity. 

Keineth’s face was aglow. 

“ Could the little home be near Peggy? ” 

Her father nodded. “ For a while, anyway.” 

“ And could I go to school with Peggy? ” 

“ Yes, I want you with your friends.” 

“ And you’d have time to play with me? ” 

“ Lots of time^ — Fd take it ! That was part of 
my dream.” 

“ Oh, Daddy, I like that picture lots best ! 

Only ” She suddenly recalled what her father 

had said. “ It would be such a great honor for you 
to be in the President’s Cabinet ! And he told me I 
must make you ! ” 

” Keineth, dear, that honor would not mean half 
as much to me as the joy of serving my fellowmen 
through my writing! We’ll show the President the 
two pictures — I know he will understand 1 ” 

Still Keineth hesitated. “ Would we — would we 


251 


KEINETH 


have to have Aunt Josephine? ’’ Then she added, as 
though a little ashamed, ‘‘ but Aunt Josephine can 
be awfully jolly when — she forgets/’ 

“ Forgets what, child ? ” 

“ Oh, that — ^that she’s sO' — so rich ! ” Keineth 
stammered. 

John Randolph laughed. ‘‘ We’ll have her part 
of the time and maybe we can make her — forget.” 

‘‘You have decided, you are very sure?” he 
asked after a moment, and he swept his hand toward 
the nearby buildings of the city as though to remind 
her of the interesting life that might lie there. 

But Keineth’s shining eyes saw a vision beyond 
them — long, happy days with Daddy and Peggy and 
the others; a home, too; real school days, such as 
she had never known in her life — ^perhaps another 
summer at Fairview. 

“ I’d love Washington, but — I like your dream 
best. Daddy! ” she answered. 

“ I knew you would ! And now, kitten, what do 
you say to finding Peggy and her father and going 
somewhere to have some cakes and hot chocolate? ” 

Through the soft April sunlight they went 
towards the White House and the thronging streets. 

252 


THE CASTLE OF DREAMS 


Keineth walked quickly, eager to find Peggy and tell 
her everything! How glad Peg would be! 

She hummed a few notes without realizing that 
it was a strain from her own music! She stopped 
suddenly and lifted laughing eyes to her father’s face. 

''Isn’t it funny, Daddy? I called my music 
' The Castle of Dreams ’ ! We were both dreaming 
the same dream ! ” 

"And we’re going to have our Castle, Keineth ! ” 




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